New York, Feb 12, 2026, 10:25 (EST) — Regular session
- After a sharp decline the day before, Alphabet’s Class C shares climbed in early trading
- EU regulators have approved Google’s purchase of Wiz, clearing a major antitrust obstacle.
- Investors are zeroed in on how Alphabet is financing its AI expansion—and turning a profit from it
Alphabet Inc’s Class C shares (GOOG) climbed 0.4% to $312.47 Thursday morning, after fluctuating between $310.39 and $313.54. This puts the Google parent’s market cap at roughly $2.9 trillion.
Debt markets are now part of the AI funding narrative. This week, Alphabet issued a rare 100-year sterling bond, raising £1 billion at a 6.125% coupon as part of a larger $31.51 billion global bond offering, according to deal memos. Investors see this as a sign of just how capital-intensive the AI race has become. Jason Granet, CIO at BNY, described it as “representative and indicative of a lot of the capital spending.” Meanwhile, analysts at Covenant Review noted the bonds included “no meaningful restrictive covenants” — those safeguards in bond contracts that typically curb leverage or protect lenders. Reuters
Regulators have now signaled clearer support for Alphabet’s largest acquisition. The European Union granted unconditional antitrust clearance for Google’s $32 billion takeover of cybersecurity firm Wiz. This deal, announced last March, aims to strengthen Google’s security capabilities within its cloud division. EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera emphasized that customers will retain “credible alternatives and the ability to switch providers” in the cloud infrastructure market, where Google faces stiff competition from Amazon and Microsoft. Reuters
Brussels remains vocal. The European Publishers Council lodged an EU antitrust complaint targeting Google’s AI Overviews — those AI-generated summaries in Search — with EPC chairman Christian Van Thillo describing it as a move to “stop a dominant gatekeeper” from using content without permission or fair pay. Google dismissed the accusations as “inaccurate” and said it’s exploring controls to give sites more say over how their content appears in generative AI features. Reuters
Alphabet’s Class C shares dropped 2.29% Wednesday, finishing at $311.33. This pushed their decline into a second day, trailing behind several other megacap stocks during a mixed session for U.S. markets, MarketWatch data revealed.
Alphabet stood out on Thursday morning, while Microsoft slid around 0.8%, Amazon dropped close to 1.3%, and Meta fell about 1.2%.
Broader indexes kicked off slightly higher, with the S&P 500 climbing 0.23% and the Nasdaq gaining 0.33%.
U.S. labor data remained in focus. Weekly jobless claims dropped by 5,000 to 227,000, yet still exceeded economists’ estimate of 222,000. “Layoffs … are not signaling a weakening labor market or economic decay,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. Reuters
Interest-rate shifts hit Alphabet and similar growth stocks fast. When bond yields rise, they typically drag down high-priced tech shares by cutting the present value of their future earnings.
The risk scenario is pretty straightforward. If AI investments keep outpacing the returns, or if regulators clamp down harder on Google’s handling of content and data, the stock could lose ground despite strong ad demand.
Friday brings the January U.S. consumer price index report at 8:30 a.m. EST, a key data point that frequently shakes up Treasury yields and the Nasdaq.
