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Alphabet Inc is selling at least $9.4bn in sterling and Swiss franc-denominated bonds, including an ultra-rare issue of a 100-year note, following a bumper deal in the US.The sterling offering is expected to be a record £4.5bn ($6.2bn) and includes tenors of three to 32 years as well as the 100-year bond, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. The Google parent drew a record £24bn of bids, they said.The Swiss offering will be a minimum of 2.45bn Swiss francs ($3.2bn) across maturities of three, six, 10, 15 and 25 years. Both deals are expected to price later Wednesday.“The market in Europe will be able to absorb this supply,” said Jack Daley, a portfolio manager at TwentyFour Asset Management. For the sterling offering, “there will be a large demand and especially as a deal of this size will become a larger portion of the index.”On Monday, Alphabet raised $20bn in a seven-part dollar debt sale, exceeding earlier expectations for a $15bn deal. It attracted more than $100bn of orders at its peak — among the strongest ever for a corporate bond offering.That set the tone for today’s offerings. All of the dollar tranches have gained in value on the secondary market, “showing there is very much demand for these names,” said Daley.The previous record corporate bond sale in the sterling market came from National Grid Plc in 2016 with a £3bn ($4.1bn) four-part sale, while in the Swiss market Roche Holding AG raised a record 3bn Swiss francs in a 2022 deal.The mega debt spree comes after Alphabet said its capital expenditures will reach as much as $185bn this year — double what it spent last year — to finance its ambitions in artificial intelligence.Other tech firms, including Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp, have also announced huge spending plans for 2026, while Morgan Stanley expects borrowing by the massive cloud-computing companies known as hyperscalers to reach $400bn this year, up from $165bn in 2025.Still, those massive borrowing needs have started to raise some concerns about potential pressure on bond valuations.Alphabet’s 100-year note is the first sale with such an extreme maturity by a technology firm since Motorola sold this type of debt in 1997, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The market for 100-year bonds is dominated by governments and institutions like universities. For corporates, potential acquisitions, outdated business models and technological obsolescence make such deals a rarity.“I could not justify taking such a long maturity bond in most companies — especially not one subject to an ever-changing landscape,” said Alex Ralph, co-portfolio manager of Nedgroup Investments Global Strategic Bond Fund. “100-year bonds tend to have a habit of calling the top of a market as well.”Still, demand from UK pension funds and insurers has made sterling a go-to market for issuers seeking longer-dated funding.Investors turned out in force for the tranche, which attracted a record £5.75 billion of bids, according to people familiar with the matter.Global corporates have also been turning to the Swiss franc bond market in recent years to diversify their debt-raising programmes. In 2025, US firms including Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc and construction equipment maker Caterpillar Inc sold Swiss franc debt.Alphabet tapped the euro bond market as recently as November, raising €6.5bn ($7.7bn). That deal, added to an issue earlier in the year, made it the biggest borrower in the euro market in 2025, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Bank of America Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co are arranging both offerings, with Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and NatWest Group Plc also on the sterling deal. BNP Paribas SA and Deutsche Bank AG are on the Swiss franc issue. 

Alphabet is taking on OpenAI with a gusto that underscores Wall Street's perception that the Google ‌parent is the leader in AI, a turn of events from a year ago when investors thought it ‌was badly lagging behind rivals and punished its ‍stock. Alphabet executives struck a more confident tone on the company's post-earnings call on Wednesday, the first since it released the Gemini 3 model, which has wowed users and ⁠helped Google catch up in the artificial intelligence race.Though it ⁠did not mention its chief AI rival by name, Alphabet's newly confident messaging emphasized a key contrast: Investments in AI have begun ‍to reap returns throughout the entire company. That served as Alphabet's justification to potentially double its capital expenditures in 2026 — to between $175bn and $185bn — as a result of massive investments into AI computing capacity.Alphabet's prepared remarks about AI in 2025 had focused on product usage and AI revenues generated specifically via its cloud-computing unit."Overall, we’re seeing our AI investments and infrastructure drive revenue and growth across the board," CEO Sundar Pichai said.Google's fresh conviction about AI-fueled revenue is backed by growth in both its consumer and enterprise businesses.Pichai said the Google Gemini app, which competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT, exceeded 750mn monthly active users at the end ‌of the December quarter, up from 650mn at the end of the prior period. That still trails ChatGPT, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in October had eclipsed 800mn weekly active users."We are also seeing significantly higher engagement per user, especially since the launch of Gemini 3," ‍Pichai said.Gemini 3 has also been integrated ⁠into "AI Mode" in Google's search engine ‌and powers Google's enterprise version of Gemini, which Pichai said on the call had reached 8mn paying licenses.Google's surging capex forecast initially alarmed investors, sending the stock down by as much as 6% in after-hours trading. But a strong showing from its cloud unit — revenue was up 48% in the December quarter — and an AI-powered boost across the rest of its business quickly reinforced Wall Street's confidence that Google's AI bets are beginning to pay off.That further validated Wall Street's current message to tech companies: Soaring AI spending can continue only if tech companies demonstrate commensurate financial returns.On Thursday, the stock was down 3% in premarket trading. It rose 65% last year and has gained 6% so far in 2026.Since the start of last year, Alphabet has gone from laggard to leader among the "Magnificent Seven" megacap companies and is now matched by only Nvidia and Apple among companies with market capitalizations of more than $4tn.Despite taking a comparably modest tone on capital ​spending for the year, Microsoft's shares took a massive ‌beating last week, due in part to heightened concerns about its reliance on OpenAI. The company said its fiscal third-quarter spending would decrease from the record $37.5bn it shelled out in the October-to-December ⁠period.With OpenAI striking a string of multi-billion-dollar deals despite still ‍losing money, investors have grown concerned about the company's ability to finance those commitments, souring sentiment around major tech firms with which it has close links.Paul Meeks, head of tech research at Freedom Capital Markets, said Alphabet was benefiting from a contrast in sentiment, despite a capex forecast that was "eye-watering.""I do think there's a narrative emerging here where the market is favoring Google versus OpenAI," Meeks said. "This time last year, every announcement by OpenAI to do business with somebody was applauded. But then in late 2025, now people are saying, 'Oh my god, too ​much of my revenue backlog or AI infra spending is coming from OpenAI.'"Shares of Oracle, whose contract backlog of more than $500 bn hinges largely on OpenAI, are down about 49% since the start of October. Microsoft, which holds a 27% stake in OpenAI and counts it as a massive customer, has slid more than 20% over the same period.Meanwhile, Alphabet has jumped about 36%. 

Alphabet Inc shares are suddenly unshackled after a long-awaited antitrust ruling removed a key risk that’s weighed on the stock for months.The decision by a US district court judge on Tuesday enabled Google’s parent to avoid the most punitive measures sought by regulators, including the sale of its Chrome browser. That sent the stock up nearly 11% over the past three days, including Friday’s 0.7% advance. The climb has put it within striking distance of a $3tn market value. With the case now out of the way, investors are turning their attention back to the potential for gains in Alphabet’s stock, which is the cheapest among the Magnificent Seven despite the recent rally.“What it does is it clears the runway for additional growth opportunities,” said Neville Javeri, senior fund manager at Allspring Global Investments, referring to the ruling. He sees an “incredible opportunity” in the stock as the decision “sets them up for a growth opportunity that might have been taken away.”The ruling caps a strong stretch for Alphabet shares that began after its second-quarter earnings showed demand for artificial intelligence products is lifting sales. At the same time, its AI offerings continue to boost investor confidence in Alphabet’s ability to fend off competition from rivals like OpenAI.The stock has gained more than 20% since the July 23 earnings report, vaulting Alphabet into the top third of performers in the Nasdaq 100 Index this year, after months of struggles amid concerns about antitrust risks and fears that AI upstarts could eat away at its Google search business, which accounts for more than half of revenue. As recently as June, Alphabet shares were down more than 10% while the Nasdaq 100 was in positive territory.Though the debate over AI is unlikely to be settled anytime soon, Wall Street is increasingly confident Alphabet can defend its turf. It debuted AI functions that were widely praised earlier this year, and the latest version of its Pixel phones, which come loaded with AI features, were also well received. Sales of handsets from both Alphabet and Samsung Electronics indicate consumers are willing to switch to devices that use Google’s Android operating system.“Given new AI Search features and GOOG’s rapidly scaling Gemini app, we expect Google will maintain its leadership in traditional search,” TD Cowen analyst John Blackledge wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday.With a market capitalisation of $2.83tn, Alphabet is roughly 6% shy of the $3tn mark, a level that’s only been reached by Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, and Nvidia Corp.Closing that gap may not be much of a stretch. Alphabet trades around 21 times estimated earnings, compared with 26 times for the Nasdaq 100, and its revenues are expected to grow 14% this year, outpacing the benchmark.“The stock still looks attractive, since it has so many high-quality businesses growing at fast rates,” said Liam McGarrity, US investment analyst at Harris Oakmark, which has Alphabet as its largest holding.Despite the improving sentiment, Alphabet’s momentum could be difficult to sustain in the near term. The stock’s 14-day relative strength index jumped above 84, its highest since 2017 and well above 70, the level where technical traders consider a security overbought. The shares are trading slightly above with average analyst price target, suggesting Wall Street doesn’t see much upside from here.Investors “understandably are relieved that near-term risks are dissipated,” but “long-term concerns about competitive risks to search will constrain the multiple,” Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett wrote in a note to clients Wednesday, reiterating his neutral rating on the stock.For McGarrity, owning Alphabet comes down to believing in its ability to stay ahead of AI rivals and maintain growth.“When you consider it is cheaper than the market even though it has industry-leading AI and significant potential in businesses like Google Cloud and Waymo, then it seems like it is trading at a significant discount,” he said.