Approximately $54 billion! U.S. tech giants are aggressively issuing bonds, targeting AI

Recently, global tech giants have launched a new round of large-scale bond issuance. Companies such as Amazon are using bond financing to further increase investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Data shows that on March 10, Amazon issued bonds totaling $37 billion across 11 different maturities in the U.S. bond market. Then on March 11, the company issued €14.5 billion (about $16.8 billion) in the euro market. In just two days, Amazon spanned both the U.S. and European markets, bringing the total bond issuance to nearly $54 billion.

Amazon’s bond issuance this time marks a further upgrade of the bond-issuing wave launched by tech giants to raise funding for AI infrastructure construction. People interviewed by reporters said that currently, AI infrastructure investment has entered an explosive phase, and demand for computing power is growing exponentially. Tech giants need to lock in long-term, low-cost capital through debt financing to avoid equity dilution or tapping reserve cash, while also consolidating their leading position in the cloud services market.

Tech Giants Lead the Bond-Issuance Wave

At present, explosive growth in computing power demand driven by generative AI has pushed tech giants into an “if you don’t invest, you’re out” AI arms race. For these companies, one of the most important sources of funding is the bond market.

Data shows that on March 10, Amazon issued $37 billion worth of bonds in the U.S. bond market across 11 maturities. In this financing, the most striking was a 50-year bond, with an issuance size of $3 billion. Next came the 40-year bond, which also appeared with an issuance size of $3 billion. The issuance sizes of the 30-year, 20-year, and 10-year bonds were $5.5 billion, $2.5 billion, and $6 billion respectively. Bonds with maturities below 10 years had a combined issuance size of $17 billion.

On March 11, Amazon issued bonds in the euro market for the first time as well, reaching €14.5 billion. Based on that day’s exchange rate, this was about $16.8 billion, setting a record for the largest corporate bond issuance in the euro market’s history.

It is worth noting that Amazon completed its first U.S. domestic bond issuance in three years last November, raising $15 billion. Oracle also completed $25 billion in bond financing this February. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, issued multi-currency bonds denominated in dollars, pounds, and Swiss francs, raising $32 billion.

Large-scale bond financing by tech giants highlights their funding pressure in the AI race. Wen Tianna, CEO of Bowdah Capital International, told reporters that tech giants choose to issue bonds at this time mainly because AI infrastructure investment has entered an explosive phase and requires huge amounts of capital to support long-term construction. At the same time, the current market also offers a favorable financing environment.

Wen Tianna believes that although interest rates have risen in recent years, tech giants have high credit ratings and strong demand for bonds. For Amazon’s 50-year bond issuance, the premium required is only 1.3%–1.55% above U.S. Treasuries, resulting in low financing costs. Meanwhile, AI investment in the early stage is capital-intensive with delayed returns. By 2026, free cash flow for many major companies may turn negative, and relying solely on operating cash flow may not be enough to fully cover. Debt financing can avoid excessive equity dilution or using reserve cash. In addition, a company’s market share directly depends on its computing power scale, and the first-mover advantage determines future pricing power for AI services and dominance in the ecosystem.

The AI Arms Race Drives the Bond-Issuance Wave

The epic bond financing initiated by tech giants such as Amazon will be mainly used to support their massive investment plans in AI infrastructure.

According to capital expenditure plans disclosed by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, the four companies’ total spending in 2026 is approximately $650 billion. These funds will mainly go toward building new data centers and related equipment deployments, becoming an important driver for accelerating the global data center construction boom.

Among them, Amazon’s announced annual capital expenditure plan reaches $200 billion, up more than 50% from about $131 billion in 2025. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, follows closely, expecting capital expenditure in 2026 to be between $175 billion and $185 billion. Meta said that capital expenditure could double from last year, reaching between $115 billion and $135 billion.

Microsoft has not released full-year guidance for fiscal 2026, but as of the second quarter ended December 2025, its capital expenditure was $37.5 billion, up 66% year over year. Analysts predict that in the full fiscal year ending this June, Microsoft’s capital expenditure may reach $105 billion.

Chen Xingwen, Chief Strategy Officer of Heiqi Capital, said in an interview with reporters that this round of tech giants’ bond-issuance wave is a form of “strategic early financing,” not a simple financial expansion. In his view, the global interest-rate cycle is near a turning point. Locking in the cost of long-term debt at this time is, in essence, an “option-like” arrangement in anticipation of future interest-rate declines. At the same time, global capital is increasingly concentrating in high-credit assets amid geopolitical uncertainty and expectations of economic slowdown. With top-tier credit ratings, tech giants can absorb large volumes of long-term capital at extremely low spreads.

Chen Xingwen believes that the AI competition has already moved from the algorithm stage into the “physical infrastructure era.” Computing power, data centers, power networks, and chip supply chains are becoming new strategic resources.

Morgan Stanley previously forecast that large cloud computing companies, known as “hyperscale enterprises,” will have borrowing of $400 billion in 2026, higher than $165 billion in 2025.

Concerns in the Market About AI Investment Returns

Alongside tech giants’ large-scale bond issuance, some equity investors have raised questions about whether the spending pace is too fast and whether the monetization cycle is uncertain.

Since October 2025, Oracle’s stock price has seen a notable adjustment. As of now, the latest price has fallen by more than 50% from its historical high. Since its historical peak, Microsoft has adjusted by nearly 30%, and Amazon and Meta have also experienced adjustments to varying degrees.

However, judging from subscriptions in the bond market, bond investors appear highly confident in tech giants’ AI investment rationale. It is understood that Amazon’s $37 billion bond issuance in the U.S. attracted subscriptions as high as $126 billion, with a subscription multiple of more than 3 times.

This round of bond issuance is a “strategic debt” undertaken by major companies to seize the future of AI. The key to success lies in the speed of monetization. He Jinlong, General Manager of Youmeili Investment, told reporters that currently, tech giants have good credit ratings, and a debt-driven investment model will undoubtedly raise leverage levels and increase financial vulnerability, which will have some impact on corporate financial health. However, this “cash-ability” will be transformed into absolute advantages in computing power, data, and talent, forming a strong-versus-strong competitive landscape and highlighting the “Matthew effect” in the market.

Wen Tianna said that at present, the monetization of generative AI remains limited and relies mainly on cloud service price increases and enterprise subscriptions, which extends the return cycle. If AI returns fall short of expectations, large-scale debt maturities may trigger refinancing pressures, spilling over into both the bond market and the stock market.

Chen Xingwen pointed out that this round of investment by global tech giants is more likely to settle into a “infrastructure dividend” similar to the internet cloud era, with the formation of profit windows highly dependent on the explosive pace of application-layer development.