Alphabet Raises $80B in Stock Sale to Fund AI Infrastructure as Demand Outpaces Supply

Spark is Google’s new agentic answer for everything. According to every product demo from the last four years, planning a trip is a killer use case for AI. Just tell it where you're going, they all promise, and your chatbot / agent / other buzzword will exhaustively search travel options, read up on all the fun things to do, check all the local hotspots, and offer you a fully fledged itinerary. So far, I've found this to work only in the most generic ways: If you want to do the six most obvious things in any city on planet Earth, AI has you covered, but that's about as far as it goes. I had a very different experience using Spark, Google's new always-on AI agent. Spark is a hugely ambitious … Read the full story at The Verge.

Search engine’s move is a good example of how artificial intelligence has made big numbers all but meaningless

One of largest equity fundraisings ever includes $10bn share sale to US investment group Berkshire Hathaway Business live – latest updates Google’s parent company Alphabet has said it plans to raise up to $80bn (£59bn) in equity to fund its vast artificial intelligence infrastructure investments, raising further questions over the economics of the AI boom. The move, one of the largest equity fundraisings ever globally, includes a $10bn share sale to the US investment group Berkshire Hathaway, which was led until last year by the retired investment guru Warren Buffett for 60 years. Continue reading...

DuckDuckGo is capitalising on growing anti-AI search sentiment by launching browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox that let users set its AI-free search experience as their default, following a surge in traffic triggered by Google’s sweeping AI-first redesign announced earlier in May. Traffic to DuckDuckGo’s no-AI search page has risen roughly 84% above baseline on […]

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced Monday it is raising $80 billion in new equity capital to expand its artificial intelligence infrastructure, with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. participating in a $10 billion private placement. According to a new press release, Berkshire says it will purchase $5 billion in Alphabet Class A common stock at $351.81 […] The post Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway To Acquire $10,000,000,000 Worth of Alphabet Stock As Google Ramps Up AI Infrastructure Investment appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. The economics of the AI boom are back in focus today, after Google’s parent company Alphabet said it plans to raise up to $80bn in equity to fund its vast AI infrastructure investments. AI is driving an expansionary moment for Alphabet. The company is experiencing strong demand for its AI solutions and services from enterprises and consumers, at levels that are exceeding the company’s available supply. By scaling its investments, the company seeks to expand its foundational infrastructure to support the significant growth opportunity ahead. “Funding of the AI capex boom is becoming an increasingly key topic for markets.” 9.30am BST: Bank of England mortgage approvals and consumer credit data 9.45am BST: Treasury Committee session on student loans 10am BST: Eurozone inflation report for May 3pm BST: US JOLTS vacancies repo

The Google parent company plans to raise the funds by selling stock.

As Google buries its search results under AI-generated answers, DuckDuckGo believes a growing number of users just want the old internet back.