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Alphabet now has $2 billion more in cash to spend on ... something

Money is cheap; moonshots aren’t.

Transportation Sec’y Foxx Discusses Future Transportation Trends With Google CEO
Transportation Sec’y Foxx Discusses Future Transportation Trends With Google CEO
Justin Sullivan / Getty

Google corporate parent Alphabet is raising $2 billion through a new bond offering, according to paperwork filed on Tuesday.

For what, we don’t know. An Alphabet rep didn’t offer an answer.

But borrowing is cheap at the moment. Alphabet/Google CFO Ruth Porat warned shareholders it may do this on the earnings call last week, saying: “In light of the interest rate environment, we may opportunistically access the market to term out our commercial paper.”

The company could use the cash for acquisitions, which are also getting cheaper. Or it could plow it into existing moonshots, like its self-driving car project or Google Fiber — one source who used to work for that broadband unit said it may borrow cash soon.

Apple completed a $12 billion bond sale earlier this year. And Microsoft made the fifth-largest bond sale ever yesterday, just under $20 billion, to fund its LinkedIn acquisition.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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