Alphabet Returns to Euro Debt Market for Latest AI Megabond Deal
(Bloomberg) — Alphabet Inc. needs to borrow heavily to fund investments in artificial intelligence, and it’s increasingly tapping every market to do so.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The parent of Google Inc. sold its biggest-ever euro-denominated bonds on Tuesday and launched its first Canadian dollar notes, in offerings expected to raise almost $17 billion. Those sales are coming just a few months after the company sold sterling, and Swiss franc-denominated notes — its debut offerings in the currencies — around the same time as a US dollar debt sale.
“The dollar market is becoming crowded, so there’s an incentive to take these deals outside the US,” said Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at Corpay. “The global investor base is expressing a lot of demand for exposure to AI in the US.”
The company priced €9 billion ($10.5 billion) in euro bonds, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The sale, in six parts, drew more than €18.3 billion of bids, they said, asking not to be identified because details are private.
The firm is also set to raise C$8.5 billion ($6.2 billion) from a four-part bond sale in Canadian dollars, marking the largest-ever investment-grade corporate offering in the currency.
Alphabet didn’t respond to a request for comment on the bond sales.
The tech company’s funding needs are vast. Alphabet said last week that it’s planning to spend as much as $190 billion this year on data centers and other capital investments, mostly tied to AI. Proceeds from the latest offerings will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include refinancing debt, people with knowledge of the deals said.
Alphabet, along with Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. are planning to spend as much as $725 billion this year on AI data center equipment and other capital, increasing their earlier projections.
“These companies are going to become a bigger and bigger part of the bond market, just like they did in the equity market,” said Ian Horn, a portfolio manager at Muzinich & Co Ltd, speaking about cloud-computing firms in general.
Alphabet’s debt sales in February raised $20 billion in its biggest-ever US dollar note offering — more than the $15 billion initially expected, after racking up orders that peaked at $103 billion. Its UK deal included a rare issue of 100-year bonds — marking the first time a tech company has priced such an offering since the dot-com frenzy of the late 1990s.
