Alphabet, owner of Google and YouTube, is one of the world’s most powerful technology companies, shaping how billions of people search for information, consume media, and interact with artificial intelligence (AI). As a long-term shareholder, Sarasin recognises the significant opportunities this creates. At the same time, it is vital that we remain alert to the profound risks that poorly-governed, ethically unconstrained technology can create for users, society, and ultimately investors.
Over the past four years, we have written repeatedly to the Board raising concerns spanning governance, ethical AI, human rights, and climate, on behalf of the Alphabet engagement group within the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) Collective Impact Coalition (CIC) on Ethical AI, which we co-lead. The WBA CIC on Ethical AI represented $8.5 trillion in assets under management at the time when we first reached out to the company in Spring 2024.
As we had no success in getting the company to speak with us, we subsequently combined efforts with two other investor coalitions, the RDR Digital Rights & AI Accountability investor engagement coordinated by the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, and the Big Tech & Human Rights investor collaboration. We sent two letters to Alphabet, in November 2025 and March 2026, asking for a discussion on key areas of concern, including child safety, effectiveness of AI safety frameworks, and human rights due diligence.
Despite these efforts, the company has declined to grant investors access to the Board or senior leadership, and our substantive concerns have gone unanswered.
We are therefore pre-declaring our voting intentions for the 5 June 2026 AGM. Our votes underscore three interlocking asks: reform of a governance structure that entrenches founder control and suppresses accountability; robust controls over AI expansion to avoid adverse impacts for customers, staff, and society, especially children; and determined action to align transformational investments in power infrastructure with decarbonisation and controls for other environmental impacts.
Governance: a structure that must support accountability
Co-founders Page and Brin control over 52% of votes while owning around 12% of the economic equity. For fourteen years, shareholders have backed a one-share-one-vote resolution; each time, the founders vote it down. Five of ten directors have served over 20 years and cannot be considered independent, yet they dominate board committees. Gender diversity has fallen from 30% to 20% in the last few years.
The auditor Ernst & Young has been in post since 1999 without a competitive tender, and earning excessive non-audit fees, posing a threat to independence where it arguably matters most.
Child safety
Ensuring social media platforms are safe for children is a key priority for Sarasin. In March 2026, a Los Angeles jury found YouTube and Meta negligent in the design of their platforms, ruling that both companies knew their products were dangerous, failed to warn users, and caused substantial harm to a young woman who began using YouTube at age six.
The case centred on deliberate design features: infinite scroll, autoplay, and algorithmic systems engineered to maximise engagement regardless of age. A federal multi-district litigation involving thousands of similar claims is underway, with a trial scheduled for June 2026. The litigation carries a risk of court-ordered injunctive relief requiring platform redesign.
Following the verdict, Sarasin coordinated a letter from 21 investor organisations to the Board Chair and CEO requesting engagement on plans to protect users under 18. We have received no substantive response.
Ethical AI
Google Search, Gemini, Google Cloud, and YouTube’s recommendation engine shape how hundreds of millions of people access information and make decisions. The potential for harm, through misinformation, privacy violations, or discriminatory outcomes, is significant and growing.
Sarasin co-leads engagement with Alphabet on behalf of the World Benchmarking Alliance’s Ethical AI Coalition. We have written to Alphabet’s Board repeatedly on AI safety frameworks, human rights due diligence, and digital rights protections. The company has never made its AI leadership available to engage. In 2025, it removed explicit human rights oversight from board committee charters, a governance regression at precisely the moment AI deployment is accelerating.
Climate and water
On the face of it, Alphabet has shown leadership in setting an ambitious 2030 net-zero target, including a 50% absolute emissions reduction from 2019 levels. In the face of rapidly expanding AI infrastructure buildout, however, it has been pulling back. The 2030 targets are now described as a ‘moonshot’. Total emissions are now 51% above the 2019 baseline, with data centre electricity consumption rising 27% in 2024 alone (data for 2025 is still not published). At a time of rising geopolitical tensions, the dangers of over-reliance on fossil fuels are clear.
Water is an equally pressing risk: legacy data centres require vast quantities for cooling; where powered by fossil fuels, water becomes a major input into successful AI expansion. Regulatory tightening and community opposition to data centres are growing.
Alphabet’s scale of expansion, over $75 billion in capex in 2025 alone predominantly directed at data centres, gives it a unique opportunity to use its market power to drive low-carbon power and water efficiencies. A failure to do so will put future growth at risk.
Summary of votes at the 2026 AGM
Given our concerns and the lack of meaningful engagement we have been able to achieve at Alphabet, we are voting against several directors and other key management resolutions. We are also supporting shareholder resolutions that align with our asks.
Votes against management proposals
Shareholder resolutions we are supporting
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