> Alphabet has to buy back their stock because of the massive amount of stock comp they award.

Wait, really? They're a publically traded company; don't they just need to issue new stock (the opposite of buying it back) to employees, who can then choose to sell it in the public market?

It's much better comp if the value of the stock goes up.

They could issue more stock, but Alphabet has decided to keep the number of outstanding shares the same, it's a thing they do for shareholders.