TL;DR

Amazon drew roughly £94 billion ($126 billion) in peak demand for a bond sale this week — one of the largest corporate offerings on record — as big tech firms continue tapping debt markets to fund AI data centre buildouts.

Big Tech’s Debt Appetite

The scale of demand underlines investor confidence in Amazon despite broader economic turbulence. The company is offering as many as 11 tranches on the US high-grade debt market, with maturities ranging from two to 50 years, alongside an eight-part euro-denominated sale.

Amazon is not alone in this borrowing spree. Oracle drew £96 billion ($129 billion) in orders for a bond sale in February, while Meta attracted £93 billion ($125 billion) last October. Google parent Alphabet raised more than £22 billion ($30 billion) across multiple currencies last month. The pattern is clear: tech companies are using cheap debt to underwrite their AI ambitions rather than drawing solely on cash reserves.

Amazon itself raised £11 billion ($15 billion) in its previous US bond sale last November — its first in three years.

Investors Want Returns

The borrowing comes as Amazon faces investor scrutiny over its spending plans. The company announced £149 billion ($200 billion) in capital expenditure for 2026, mostly directed at AI infrastructure — a higher figure than competitors Google and Microsoft. Shares fell in February after the announcement.

CEO Andy Jassy has defended the outlay, telling investors: “We’re going to invest to be the leader in this space.” The spending covers custom AI chips, robotics and low Earth orbit satellites.

Looking Forward

For UK businesses and investors, the scale of these bond sales signals that the AI infrastructure arms race is far from cooling. The question is whether the revenue returns from AI services will justify the debt burden — a test that will play out over the next two to three years as these data centres come online.