NEW YORK (Realist English). Amazon is raising $12bn in its first US bond sale in three years, joining a wave of major technology companies tapping debt markets to finance enormous spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The Seattle-based group launched the sale on Monday, targeting roughly six investment-grade tranches, according to a person familiar with the deal. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are leading the transaction, regulatory filings show.
In a statement, Amazon said proceeds would be used “to support business investments, fund future capital expenditures, and repay upcoming debt maturities.”
The move comes as Big Tech accelerates investment in next-generation data centres capable of supporting AI models, with companies increasingly turning to debt instead of using cash reserves. Alphabet issued $25bn in bonds earlier this month, Meta sold $30bn in October — the largest corporate bond sale this year — and Oracle raised $18bn in September.
US companies have already issued more than $200bn in debt this year for AI-related infrastructure, and analysts expect that “mega-deals” from tech giants could push total US corporate bond issuance to a record $1.8tn in 2026, according to JPMorgan. Goldman Sachs estimates tech borrowing now represents more than a quarter of all net supply in the market.
The surge has unsettled some credit investors. “The sudden onslaught of supply is weighing on the market,” said Robert Tipp, head of global bonds at PGIM. “These deals may be trading at tight spreads, but they promise to reshape the entire market,” he said, warning that yields on long-dated bonds are likely to rise.
Amazon Web Services — still the world’s largest provider of leased computing power — is driving much of the company’s capital needs. AWS has sharply expanded spending to meet surging AI demand, with Amazon’s capital expenditures jumping 61% to $34.2bn in the third quarter alone, and $89.9bn so far this year.
Those investments have doubled Amazon’s available computing capacity since 2022, and chief executive Andy Jassy said the company plans to double it again by 2027. Earlier this month, Amazon signed a $38bn deal to supply computing power to OpenAI, granting the startup access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips over seven years.
Heavy issuance of “AI bonds” in recent weeks has pressured prices, as investors brace for hundreds of billions in additional borrowing by Big Tech. Nonetheless, Amazon’s return to the bond market underscores how central debt financing has become to the sector’s AI ambitions — and how quickly the arms race is accelerating.
