Tech Giant Returns to Debt Markets After Three-Year Hiatus
Amazon.com Inc. has announced plans to raise approximately US$12 billion through its first U.S. dollar bond offering in nearly three years, marking a significant return to corporate debt markets as technology companies race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure. The e-commerce and cloud computing leader is selling investment-grade bonds in as many as six parts, with initial price discussions for the longest portion—a 40-year bond—suggesting a premium of about 1.15 percentage points above Treasury rates.
Massive AI Infrastructure Investment Drives Funding Needs
The bond proceeds are expected to support various corporate initiatives, including potential acquisitions, capital expenditures, and share buybacks. This move comes as Amazon dramatically increases spending on artificial intelligence capabilities. The company's capital expenditures surged 61% to US$34.2 billion in the third quarter alone, reflecting massive investments in data centers and specialized chips required to build and operate advanced AI systems.
Amazon's cloud division, the world's largest provider of rented computing power, recently signed a landmark US$38 billion deal with OpenAI to supply hundreds of thousands of Nvidia graphics processing units over seven years. Chief executive Andy Jassy has revealed that the power capacity of Amazon's data center fleet has doubled since 2022 and is projected to double again by 2027.
Tech Sector Bond Issuance Reaches Record Levels
Amazon's debt offering follows similar moves by other technology giants. Earlier this month, Google parent Alphabet Inc. sold US$25 billion of bonds in the U.S. and European markets. Meta Platforms Inc. completed a US$30 billion corporate bond offering last month—the largest such transaction this year—while Oracle Corp. sold US$18 billion in high-grade bonds during September.
This issuance spree from major technology companies has helped push global corporate bond sales to a record exceeding US$6 trillion in 2025. Financial analysts at JPMorgan Chase anticipate that the wave of spending to finance AI investments will drive U.S. high-grade market issuance to a new record of US$1.81 trillion next year.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Morgan Stanley are managing Amazon's bond sale, which represents one of the most significant corporate debt offerings in recent months as technology firms compete to dominate the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence sector.
