Alphabet’s record-breaking $85B raise for Google’s AI business is a helluva good signal

Key points

• If Alphabet’s record-breaking $85 billion stock sale signals investor appetite for AI-related offerings — and it does — we can safely say that investors are voracious.
• Google’s parent company had initially intended to sell a first tranche of $40 billion worth of various equity instruments — two different classes of shares, plus smaller “depositary shares” priced to be accessible to a broader range of investors.
• Among the buyers: Berkshire Hathaway, still known for its love of value investing, picked up $10 billion worth.
• Alphabet plans to sell another $40 billion worth next quarter, for $85 billion total.
• Even $80 billion would have topped the record for equity offerings previously set by Brazilian oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA, which raised $70 billion in 2010, Bloomberg reports.