Alphabet’s $80B Move, Evolution’s Heavy Buying, and the Anthropic Standoff
Portfolio News #31
Hi All,
Welcome to our brief overview of portfolio news from the past few days.
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AMD
UK AI Investment: AMD announced plans to invest up to £2 billion in the United Kingdom over the next five years to accelerate AI research, scientific computing, and sovereign AI development.
Strategic Academic Partnerships: The company is collaborating with Imperial College London, Oriole Networks, and the University of Cambridge to advance AI infrastructure.
Alphabet
$80 Billion Equity Capital Raise: Alphabet announced an unprecedented $80 billion equity raise (which has since seen demand push it closer to $85 billion) to fund its artificial intelligence and data center expansion. Notably, this includes a $10 billion private placement to Berkshire Hathaway at a weird discount to what the price was at the time.
Massive SpaceX Cloud/GPU Deal: Google has entered into a $920 million-per-month agreement with SpaceX to provide access to roughly 110,000 NVIDIA GPUs, plus CPUs and memory, from October 2026 through June 2029. Strict capacity milestones are in place.
Green Energy Data Center in Texas: Google is partnering with Intersect to build the Meitner Energy Center in Texas, co-located with over a gigawatt of wind, solar, and battery storage.
Alphabet choosing to raise equity rather than debt highlights the jaw-dropping capital intensity of the AI arms race. To put it in perspective, $80 billion covers less than half a year of Alphabet’s planned $180–$190 billion 2026 capex. However, Berkshire Hathaway anchoring a $10 billion tranche acts as a massive stamp of institutional validation that management is deploying this capital efficiently. That said we find the discount offered at the time somewhat unfair to minority shareholders.
Evolution AB
Aggressive Share Buybacks: On May 18, Evolution’s board approved a massive EUR 2 billion share buyback program. Over the past three weeks, management has wasted no time executing the plan, consistently buying hundreds of thousands of shares daily on the open market, accumulating over 2 million shares to date.
This buyback represents roughly 16.5% of Evolution’s market capitalization. The speed and aggression of these daily open-market purchases signal management’s extreme confidence in their cash flow generation and clearly indicate they believe the stock is fundamentally undervalued. We will soon publish our valuation update.
Amazon
Anthropic vs. The Pentagon: Amazon-backed Anthropic is facing a massive standoff with the US government ahead of its highly anticipated IPO. The Pentagon is threatening to label the company a “supply chain risk” after Anthropic refused demands to remove contractual restrictions prohibiting the military from using Claude for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons.
€10B+ European Automation Push: Amazon is investing over €10 billion to modernize European fulfillment centers. This includes deploying next-gen Proteus robotics by H1 2027 and committing $1 billion to worker upskilling by 2030.
The European automation push is a brilliant dual-track strategy. Deploying advanced robotics while simultaneously investing heavily in human worker upskilling serves as the perfect “social hedge,” effectively mitigating regulatory and labor friction in a strict European labor market.
Autodesk
Lowering Barriers for Small Businesses: Following the launch of Autodesk for Small Business, the company slashed the entry cost for its flexible consumption model. Starting June 4, the minimum purchase for Autodesk Flex dropped from 100 tokens ($300) to just 33 tokens ($99).
Autodesk’s research notes that over 80% of small design business owners struggle with administrative overhead. Cutting the token entry price by 66% removes upfront financial risk. By lowering friction for solo designers today, Autodesk ensures these businesses scale on their software tomorrow.
Other Key Updates
Index Shuffles: Pool Corporation, alongside Campbell, is being removed from the S&P 500 index effective June 22, to be replaced by Marvell Technology and Flex.
Being dropped from the S&P 500 forces index-tracking funds to sell Pool Corp. This forced selling pressure often creates temporary mispricing, opening up a compelling entry point for active, long-term buyers.
Adobe: RBC Capital Markets expects solid fiscal Q2 results, projecting total Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR) to exceed the $26.6 billion consensus.
ASML: BofA Global Research raised its price objective for ASML to EUR 1,921 / $2,268 and maintained its “Top Pick” status. With EUV capacity expanding and newer models driving up margins, ASML signals strong growth confidence through 2028.
That’s a wrap. See you soon.