Alphabet Raises Debt As AI Spending Drives Corporate Borrowing

(RTTNews) - Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), the parent company of Google, is tapping the US high-grade bond market to raise fresh debt.

Alphabet is selling bonds in as many as seven tranches, including a long-dated note maturing in 2066.

The initial price discussions for the longest bond are approximately 1.2 percentage points above US Treasuries. The company is also preparing for potential Swiss franc and sterling bond sales, which could include a rare 100-year bond.

The AI spending boom is driving this corporate borrowing. Hyperscalers, the major cloud and AI infrastructure players, are expected to invest more than $650 billion in AI infrastructure this year. This influx of debt into the bond market has so far been easily absorbed by investors, though concerns are growing about a possible AI spending bubble.

Alphabet recently announced plans to spend up to $185 billion in 2026, significantly higher than previous forecasts. The company also reported fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded analyst expectations.

Alphabet last issued US bonds in November, raising $17.5 billion after attracting roughly $90 billion in orders, alongside a EUR 6.5 billion sale in Europe.

Overall, capital expenditure on AI, cloud computing, and data centers is projected to reach $3 trillion by 2029, underscoring why Big Tech companies are increasingly turning to debt markets to fund the next phase of the AI boom.