Alphabet's plan to sell $80 billion in stock to fund its AI buildout isn't all bad

Alphabet bulls fought the down tape all day on Tuesday, taking the glass-half-full view of the company's plans to sell a massive amount of stock to fund its artificial intelligence buildout. The cloud and search giant announced late Monday that it plans to raise $80 billion through a stock offering, including a $10 billion investment by Berkshire Hathaway . It's the latest step in an aggressive effort by big tech companies to secure future funding for AI infrastructure. Alphabet said it intends to use the proceeds for "capital expenditures to scale AI infrastructure and global compute." Selling stock to fund investments is traditionally frowned upon because it dilutes the stakes of existing investors. In addition, Alphabet is seeking to raise half of that capital through what's called an at-the-market (ATM) strategy, in which a company incrementally sells newly issued shares in the secondary market over time. All of this is not ideal for investors. "You're not going to be able to get the stock really rolling because as soon as it starts rolling, they put [more] stock out. That's part of the problem with an ATM program," Jim Cramer said during Tuesday's Morning Meeting . As shareholders, we would much prefer Alphabet (or any holding) to fund investments with its free cash flow, which is more sustainable than raising capital from external sources. A second-best scenario is using debt because it doesn't dilute existing shareholders. …