Berkshire’s $10 Billion Bet Backs Alphabet’s Texas-Sized Infrastructure Blitz
05.06.2026 - 18:56:51 | boerse-global.de
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has poured $10 billion into Alphabet, placing a massive bet on the Google parent’s artificial-intelligence ambitions just as the company ramps up capital spending to levels Wall Street has never seen. The private placement, executed by Berkshire deputy Greg Abel, saw the conglomerate snap up Class A shares at roughly $352 and Class C shares at around $348 — a 6 to 7 percent discount to where the stock traded before the deal was announced. The investment vaults Alphabet to Berkshire’s third- or fourth-largest portfolio holding.
That cash injection is part of a broader $84.75 billion capital raise that also includes a $40 billion at-the-market equity program and roughly $34.75 billion in public stock and bond offerings. Moody’s has called the package credit-positive, noting it shores up liquidity for a global data-center expansion while keeping leverage at a stable 0.7 times. The funds are badly needed: Alphabet now expects 2026 capital expenditure of $180 billion to $190 billion, nearly double last year’s $91.5 billion.
The physical centerpiece of that spending is the Meitner Energy Center, a Texas data-campus carved out of Gray County. Construction started on June 4, and once complete it will house four data-center buildings drawing up to 840 megawatts of power. The key innovation: the facility is wired directly to an adjacent array of wind, solar and battery storage capable of supplying more than one gigawatt, backed by on-site gas turbines for baseload stability. Because the campus is off the public grid, Google avoids shifting the cost of AI-driven electricity demand onto local ratepayers. Air cooling instead of evaporative cooling further cuts water use — only sanitation-grade drinking water is needed on site.
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The Meitner project is the second joint development between Google and Intersect Power since Alphabet fully acquired the clean-energy developer in March 2026 for $4.75 billion from private-equity firm TPG Rise Climate. The first, the Quantum Clean Energy Campus in Haskell County, Texas, is set to go live in June 2026 with 640 megawatts of solar capacity and 1.3 gigawatt-hours of battery storage. Intersect brought a pipeline of several gigawatts of projects under construction or development, giving Alphabet a dedicated energy arm to fuel its AI buildout.
Alphabet has pledged $40 billion in Texas investments alone by 2027. Across the United States, the company has data centers worth more than $160 billion either planned or under construction, with $21 billion of that currently being erected. To house the construction workforce, Google is building the Caprock Workforce Hub on an 800-hectare site in neighboring Wheeler County, capable of accommodating up to 3,500 workers.
The scale of the spending has not left the stock unscathed. After a brief pop of about 4 percent on the initial Texas announcement, shares have settled back. They recently traded at €318.30, roughly 9 percent below the 52-week high set in May. The relative-strength index stands at 47.7, signaling neutral sentiment. Still, the year-to-date gain remains above 116 percent. Income-focused investors have a near-term catalyst: the ex-dividend date for Alphabet’s $0.22-per-share payout is June 8, 2026.
Beyond the raw infrastructure, Alphabet is deepening its enterprise-AI ecosystem. IBM and Google Cloud have formed a joint consulting unit that will deploy thousands of certified IBM consultants to help companies implement AI. Workday is integrating its finance and human-resources AI agents more tightly into the Gemini platform. For Berkshire Hathaway, the message is clear: the AI infrastructure thesis is now so capital-intensive that even the most patient investors need a partner with deep pockets and a long time horizon.
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