Alphabet’s $80 Billion Flex

Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing

The Motley Fool

Business, Investing

4.3 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alphabet is raising over $80 billion to help its AI buildout, assisted by Berkshire Hathaway. We discuss what that says about the ROI of AI today and how balance sheets play into the equation. Then we discuss the AI supplier hype and why Bitcoin might have a tough year ahead. Travis Hoium, Lou Whiteman, and Tyler Crowe discuss: - Alphabet’s $80 billion flex - AI supplier whack a mole - Bitcoin’s Michael Saylor problem Companies discussed: Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, BRKB), Micron (MU), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Bitcoin (BTC), Strategy (MSTR), Dell (DELL), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Host: Travis Hoium Guests: Lou Whiteman, Tyler Crowe Engineer: Dan Boyd Disclosure: Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. The Motley Fool and its affiliates (collectively, “TMF”) do not endorse, recommend, or verify the accuracy or completeness of the statements made within advertisements. TMF is not involved in the offer, sale, or solicitation of any securities advertised herein and makes no representations regarding the suitability, or risks associated with any investment opportunity presented. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decisions. TMF assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages arising from this advertisement.We’re committed to transparency: All personal opinions in advertisements from Fools are their own. The product advertised in this episode was loaned to TMF and was returned after a test period or the product advertised in this episode was purchased by TMF. Advertiser has paid for the sponsorship of this episode.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why does one of the most profitable companies in the world need more money?
0:05.8	Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing starts now.
0:09.8	Welcome to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing.
0:11.8	I'm Travis Hoy.
0:12.4	I'm joined today by Lou Whiteman and Tyler Crow.
0:15.5	And guys, one of the stranger news announcements this week was that Alphabet announced that they are raising another
0:21.9	$80 billion.
0:23.7	What got attention was that $10 billion of that is going to come from Berkshire Hathaway.
0:28.1	But as neoclouds and Oracle and even some of the other hyperscalers are taking on more and more
0:34.7	debt to fund this AI buildout, which is now moving past the
0:39.3	operating cash that they're generating from their business, even Alphabet might pass that
0:44.1	in 2026. They need more money. And Tyler, Alphabet said, hey, we want to sell equity, not debt.
0:50.7	So this is just kind of an interesting move from them. I think there's a little bit of
0:54.8	like we've been watching too many industry and business related television shows like Succession.
1:00.0	We're all we're thinking like strategy. Like how can we really stick it to these other players?
1:04.3	But let's be honest, they're just looking at the numbers and being like, we need more money.
1:08.2	We're not trying to like necessarily beat somebody more so than the other.
1:12.1	The first thing is the bottom line first. And I think this is really the case when it comes to this
1:17.0	deal with with Google raising $80 billion because just some rough numbers. I think their current
1:24.0	capEx is somewhere in like $170 billion range for 2026.
1:28.5	2027's probably going to be more and they're bringing in 175 billion in operating cash over
1:34.5	the past 12 months. So if you're going to obviously do more, you're going to, you're going to go
	...

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