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 step up their investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Data shows that on March 10, Amazon issued a total of $37 billion in bonds 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 bonds in the euro market. In just two days, Amazon spanned the two major markets of the U.S. and Europe, with its total bond issuance nearing $54 billion.

Amazon’s current bond issuance indicates that the wave of borrowing launched by tech giants to raise funding for AI infrastructure construction has been further upgraded. Interviewees told reporters that, at present, AI infrastructure investment has entered an explosion period, and demand for computing power is growing exponentially. Tech giants need to lock in long-term, low-cost funds through debt financing to avoid equity dilution or drawing down reserve cash, while also consolidating their leading position in the cloud services market.

Tech Giants Lead the Bond Issuance Wave

At present, generative AI has triggered an explosive growth in demand for computing power, pulling tech giants into an AI arms race of “either you invest or you’re out.” For these companies, one of the important sources of funding is the bond market.

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

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

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

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

Wen Tianna believes that although interest rates have risen over the past few years, these tech giants have high credit ratings and strong bond demand. In Amazon’s case, its 50-year bonds require only a premium of 1.3%—1.55% over U.S. Treasuries, resulting in low financing costs. Meanwhile, AI investment in the early stage is capital-intensive with delayed returns. By 2026, the free cash flows of multiple major companies may turn negative. Relying solely on operating cash flow may not be enough to cover. Debt financing can also avoid excessive equity dilution or drawing down reserve cash. In addition, a company’s market share directly depends on the scale of computing power. The first-mover advantage determines future pricing power and ecosystem leadership in AI services.

The AI Arms Race Pushes the Bond-Issuance Wave

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

According to the capital expenditure plans disclosed by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, the four companies’ combined spending in 2026 will total approximately $650 billion. These funds will be mainly directed toward new data center construction and supporting equipment deployments, becoming an important driving force for accelerating the global data center construction wave.

Among them, Amazon’s announced annual capital expenditure plan reaches $200 billion, more than 50% higher than the roughly $131 billion capital expenditure in 2025. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, comes next, with capital expenditure expected to be between $175 billion and $185 billion in 2026. 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 as of December 2025, its capital expenditure was $37.5 billion, up 66% year over year. Analysts predict that Microsoft’s capital expenditure for the entire fiscal year through June this year could reach $105 billion.

Chen Xingwen, Chief Strategy Officer at Heizi Capital, pointed out in an interview with reporters that this round of bond issuance by tech giants is “strategic early financing,” not simply a 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 essentially a “call-option style” arrangement for future interest rate declines. At the same time, under conditions of geopolitical uncertainty and expectations of an economic slowdown, global capital is continuously concentrating in high-credit assets. With top credit ratings, tech giants are able to absorb large amounts of long-term capital at very low interest-rate spreads.

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

Morgan Stanley previously estimated that the borrowing amount of large cloud computing companies, known as “ultra-large-scale enterprises,” will reach $400 billion in 2026, higher than $165 billion in 2025.

Concerns in the Market About AI Investment Returns

While tech giants are issuing bonds at scale, some equity investors have raised questions about the spending pace being too fast and the uncertainty of the monetization cycle.

Since October 2025, Oracle’s share price has shown a clear adjustment. As of now, its latest price has fallen by more than 50% from its historical high. Microsoft has also declined nearly 30% since its historical high. Amazon and Meta have likewise experienced varying degrees of pullbacks.

However, judging from bond market subscriptions, bond investors have relatively high confidence in tech giants’ AI investment logic. 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 liability” undertaken by big players 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, these tech giants have good credit ratings, and a debt-driven investment model will undoubtedly raise the leverage level and increase financial vulnerability, which will have some impact on companies’ financial health. However, this “cash-ability” will be translated into absolute advantages in computing power, data, and talent, forming a competitive landscape in which strong players consistently outperform and highlighting the “Matthew effect” in the market.

Wen Tianna said that at present, the commercialization and monetization of generative AI remains limited. It mainly relies 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 pressure, which could spread to 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 “infrastructure dividends” similar to the internet cloud era, and the formation of profit windows depends heavily on the explosive pace of growth at the application layer.