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Alphabet shareholders reject proposals on water use reporting and AI governance oversight
The board recommended voting against both measures, continuing a pattern of ESG proposal defeats at the tech giant's annual meetings.
Alphabet held its 2026 annual shareholder meeting on June 5, and two proposals that aimed to push the company toward greater transparency on water consumption and AI risk oversight both failed to pass.
The board had recommended shareholders vote against both measures.
What shareholders actually wanted
Proposal 6 called for enhanced reporting on water usage, specifically tied to AI development. Training and running large AI models requires enormous data centers, and those data centers need cooling, which requires water. The proposal wanted Alphabet to disclose more about its water strategies and how expanding AI infrastructure might strain local water supplies.
Proposal 12 sought to update the Audit Committee Charter to formalize board-level oversight of AI-related risks, with particular attention to human rights implications. SHARE, Parnassus Investments, and PFA Pension all supported the measure.
Both proposals lost.
Why these proposals keep failing
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin hold super-voting Class B shares, which means the company’s dual-class share structure gives insiders outsized control over governance votes.
Alphabet’s proxy statement, filed on April 24, leaned heavily on existing governance and risk oversight structures as justification for voting against both proposals.
The AI governance gap
Parnassus Investments, one of the proposal’s backers, manages billions in assets with an ESG-integrated approach. PFA Pension is one of Denmark’s largest pension funds. SHARE is a Canadian responsible investment organization.
What this means for investors
Alphabet’s governance structure makes shareholder-driven change exceptionally difficult. The dual-class share setup means that unless insiders agree with a proposal, it’s unlikely to pass regardless of how much institutional support it attracts.
Investors focused on sustainable and responsible investing should note that the gap between institutional support for AI governance proposals and actual voting outcomes remains wide at Alphabet.