Alphabet has raised €6 billion from a euro-denominated bond sale, as the Google parent turns to European debt markets to help pay for its vast artificial intelligence infrastructure programme. Reuters reported that the offering was split across seven tranches, with maturities ranging from two to 19 years, and that investor demand came in at a little more than €17 billion — nearly three times the amount on offer.

The sale was launched on Monday, the same day Oracle borrowed in the US dollar market, underlining how the biggest technology groups are now competing for the same pools of bond investor cash to fund data centres, chips and power. The Hindu BusinessLine, citing Bloomberg, also confirmed that Alphabet sold €6 billion of notes on Monday as part of the week's heavy technology issuance.

The borrowing follows a strong third quarter for the group. Alphabet's results, released on 28 October, showed revenue of $127.58 billion, up 25% on a year earlier, with diluted earnings per share of $2.12. Google Cloud was the standout, with revenue of $30.7 billion, up 103% year on year, as demand for AI computing kept climbing.

Analysts have nonetheless grown more cautious on the shares. Wells Fargo cut its price target to $365 from $371 on 2 November while keeping an Overweight rating, and Jefferies trimmed its target to $400 from $445 the same day while maintaining a buy recommendation. Neither move amounted to a downgrade.

Legal questions also hang over the company's AI products. An adviser to the Court of Justice of the European Union said Google's Gemini assistant could in some circumstances infringe copyright by drawing on press articles in its answers — an opinion, not a final court ruling. Separately, an Alphabet shareholder filed suit in Chicago on 30 October against chief executive Sundar Pichai and other executives over the use of copyrighted works to train AI models. No court has ruled on the claims. Alphabet shares rose 1.5% on Friday to close at €255.85.