The Stock Market Should Be More Worried About Google's AI Funding Plan -- Barrons.com

Dow Jones
Jun 02

U.S. stocks appear largely unfazed by the developing collapse of peace talks between Washington and Tehran and a massive capital raising plan from the second-largest tech company in the world.

That sentence alone is enough to stoke the concerns of investors worried that the tech and artificial intelligence trade has captured markets in a potentially damaging upswing -- and lay the groundwork for a summertime pullback.

Alphabet, citing the current AI zeitgeist that is "driving an expansionary moment" for the Google parent, is planning to raise around $80 billion over the coming days. That will sap valuable capital from a market already stretched to its tech limit ahead of SpaceX's massive $2 trillion IPO slated for next week.

AI chatbot maker Anthropic, meanwhile, made its confidential IPO filing last night, with a valuation that could seek around $50 billion to $60 billion from public markets. A similar amount will likely be extracted by OpenAI before the end of the year.

Taking upwards of $300 billion from this tech-focused market, which has already added more than 25% to the Nasdaq since the start of the second quarter, is going to be costly.

It may be even trickier to do so when the U.S. and Iran talks remain in a stalemate, Russia is launching a major offensive in its war with Ukraine, America's economy is vulnerable to an energy shock, and long bond yields are testing multidecade high.

Markets have absorbed an astonishing amount of headline risk since the war with Iran began in February, and staged one of the strongest equity recoveries on record.

Whether it can manage the billions in new capital needed to fuel its AI ambitions without putting those gains at risk remains to be seen.

-- Martin Baccardax

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Alphabet's AI Fundraise. Berkshire's In for $10 Billion.

Alphabet is raising $80 billion in a series of equity sales to fund its artificial intelligence ambitions. The potential for the huge equity offering, which includes a $10 billion sale to Berkshire Hathaway, wasn't mentioned during its earnings call in April, when it emphasized its strong internal cash flow.

   -- The Google parent has also raised $85 billion in debt financing over the 
      past year. This offering includes $40 billion in shares sold at the 
      market starting in the third quarter, the $10 billion private placement 
      with Berkshire, and $30 billion in underwritten offerings of shares and 
      convertible preferred stock. 
 
   -- Alphabet said the offering is part of a "balanced way" to fund 
      investments while maintaining a "healthy balance sheet." Its capital 
      needs are large, seeking $180 billion to $190 billion in 2026. Alphabet 
      has also said that it expects capital expenditures to "significantly 
      increase" in 2027 relative to 2026. 
 
   -- Berkshire already had a sizable Alphabet stake of 58 million shares at 
      the end of March, which had a $22 billion value as of Monday. It'll now 
      hold about $32 billion of Alphabet stock, making a top Berkshire equity 
      holding behind only Apple, American Express, and about equal to 
      Coca-Cola. 
 
   -- Berkshire is paying about $352 a share for the Class A stock and $348 for 
      the class C stock. That's a 6%-plus discount to the closing prices of 
      Alphabet stock Monday. Big equity offerings often are sold at discounts 
      to the market price. 

What's Next: The $15 billion of convertible preferred stock will likely be among the largest such offerings sold. The plan shows how quickly Alphabet has flipped from buying back billions of dollars of its shares in 2024 and 2025 to no repurchases in the first quarter and now selling stock.

-- Andrew Bary

As IPO Streak Continues, Anthropic Files Confidential Papers

Anthropic has leapfrogged ahead of rival artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, filing its confidential paperwork for an initial public offering. The move, announced by Anthropic, comes less than a week after it raised $65 billion in a funding round that valued it at $965 billion post-money, also above OpenAI.

   -- Anthropic filed its draft registration statement with the Securities and 
      Exchange Commission, but didn't say how many shares it was selling and at 
      what price. Wall Street has expected Anthropic and OpenAI to file for 
      IPOs sometime this year. 
 
   -- OpenAI, developer of the chatbot ChatGPT, is working with bankers on a 
      draft prospectus it plans to file confidentially with regulators soon, 
      The Wall Street Journal reported on May 20. In March OpenAI said a 
      funding round valued it around $852 billion. 
 
   -- Elon Musk's SpaceX is also going public this year -- the offering is 
      expected in a matter of days. It is looking to raise a record amount of 
      money in its debut, valuing the commercial space company at about $2 
      trillion. 
 
   -- And in another high-profile IPO, Quantinuum raised the size of its 
      offering to as much as $1.46 billion. It is expected to be the largest 
      IPO of a quantum computing company this year and could start trading as 
      early as this week. 

What's Next: Anthropic also said last week that it expects to release its most advanced AI model, Claude Mythos Preview, soon. Mythos hasn't been made widely available because of concerns about whether security firms can handle the new threats the advanced model could pose.

-- Angela Palumbo and Mackenzie Tatananni

Nvidia CEO Says Marvell Can Be Next Trillion-Dollar Company

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Marvell Technology could become the next trillion-dollar company, as he gave the chips-and-networking company a big endorsement at the Computex conference in Taiwan.

   -- Huang pointed to the need for networking infrastructure to connect data 
      centers to power AI data centers, speaking alongside Marvell CEO Matt 
      Murphy. "That's the reason why Marvell is so essential," he said, telling 
      Murphy: "That's why you're going to be the next trillion-dollar company." 
 
   -- Marvell stock closed Monday with a market capitalization of around $192 
      billion, though the shares were rising 25% in early premarket trading 
      Tuesday. 
 
   -- Ever-larger AI data centers require optical transceivers to more 
      efficiently transfer data by converting electrical signals into light and 
      Marvell makes the digital signal processors within those transceivers. 
 
   -- Nvidia has invested $2 billion in Marvell as part of a collaboration that 
      will allow customers to use components from both companies to develop 
      semi-custom AI infrastructure. 

What's Next: Nvidia's investments in other companies in the AI ecosystem have raised eyebrows among some skeptics. However, Barron's has argued that it could turn out to be a smart use of its surplus cash, meaning it is not overly reliant on a few big chip customers and is locking in demand for future generations of its AI processors.

-- Adam Clark

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Earnings Prove Strong Server Demand

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's better-than-expected earnings and outlook, following similar strong results from peer Dell Technologies, prove yet again that server demand is strong as customers buy up the hardware needed to power AI. CEO Antonio Neri called the results "durable."

   -- HPE reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of 79 cents a share and a 
      40% gain in revenue, to $10.7 billion. Cloud & AI revenue of $7.71 
      billion, the segment that includes its server business, was also higher 
      than Wall Street expectations for $6.93 billion. 
 
   -- Neri said HPE customers continue to invest in modernizing their 
      infrastructure and scaling AI, and the company's performance shows the 
      strength of its combined networking portfolio. Networking revenue for the 
      quarter was $2.69 billion, above estimates and up 148% from a year ago. 
 
   -- The CEO also thanked investors for their patience through the acquisition 
      of Juniper Networks, which closed in July 2025 after some regulatory 
      challenges. Neri said HPE expects to return about 75% of free cash flow 
      to shareholders in fiscal 2027. 

What's Next: HPE sees July-quarter revenue of $11.5 billion to $12.1 billion and adjusted earnings of 88 cents to 93 cents a share, both above expectations. Networking-segment revenue is projected to increase 72% to 75%.

-- Angela Palumbo and Janet H. Cho

IBM Stock Notches Record High. It's Not Because of Quantum.

International Business Machines has extended its recent hot streak, propelled by ongoing quantum hype and high-profile federal endorsements to its highest valuation ever, above the $300 billion threshold. Yet, that flashy narrative is precisely what investors should look past, say analysts at Barclays.

   -- Quantum computing isn't why these Barclays analysts initiated a bullish 
      call on IBM, unexpected considering the amount of attention Big Blue has 
      gotten for its quantum effort in the past two weeks, starting with a 
      federal infusion of $1 billion to build a standalone quantum foundry. 
 
   -- IBM is also investing more than $10 billion in quantum research, 
      development, and manufacturing over the next five years. But Barclays 
      analyst Raimo Lenschow is focused on a different aspect of the business: 
      IBM's concentration in software, which is behind nearly half its revenue 
      and most of its profit. 
 
   -- Lenschow noted that IBM's infrastructure software is tailored to large, 
      highly regulated enterprises, creating a highly loyal customer base not 
      at risk of being upended by AI. Oppenheimer analyst Param Singh similarly 
      argued in January that IBM's software portfolio was "sticky," meaning 
      clients repeatedly return. 
 
   -- Evercore ISI's Amit Daryanani and Citi Research's Fatima Boolani have 
      shared similar sentiments. Boolani said in April that IBM's software and 

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June 02, 2026 06:47 ET (10:47 GMT)

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