Google, Meta and the AI ‘hyperscalers’ are on a $1 trillion borrowing binge after years of printing cash. Here’s why Big Tech’s pivot to debt matters

Almost every major capital spending boom during the past 200 years has ended in bankruptcies, consolidations, and tears—but also wins for the victors.

The late 1990s buildout of fiber-optic networks, in which companies spent billions to pull dark fiber across continents and under oceans, saw borrowers like WorldCom, Global Crossing, and others go under. The shale revolution that prompted U.S. oil and gas companies to issue $350 billion in debt to fund drilling led to hundreds of bankruptcies after oil prices swooned in 2014 and 2015. Going back even further to the early 1900s, the widespread adoption of electric power led to a buildout that saw roughly half of the 3,000 small utilities and power companies that existed either disappear or get sold during a brutal decade of consolidation. In each case, there were also long-term victors who inherited infrastructure and reaped the benefits of these expansions in the form of lower-cost bandwidth, cheaper consumer prices, and large manufacturers that consolidated the power grid.

Now, it’s AI’s turn. 

The artificial intelligence buildout is being driven primarily by five hyperscalers—Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle—and has effectively become a capital-expenditure sprint with an eventual price tag expected to be in the trillions, most of it committed to constructing the massive data centers and cloud infrastructure AI requires. The fab five have thus far made total commitments of $969 billion, with more than two thirds, $662 billion, planned for data center-related leases yet to start, according to a Moody’s analysis published last month. Much of the buildout is being paid for with operating cash flows, but the sheer magnitude of the spending has prompted companies to shake up the calculus by bridging the gap between capex and free cash flow with bonds. 

In 2025, Alphabet, Amazon, Oracle, Meta and Microsoft issued about $121 billion in new debt via bonds, compared to $40 billion in 2020. And the pace is not expected to slow down anytime soon: Wall Street estimates show the AI-related bond supply could be in the range of $100 billion to $300 billion this year. Over the next three to five years, total data center investment could run $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion, according to some analyses. 

The trend is already changing the stakes for businesses that have traditionally had no need to borrow, introducing a new layer of stakeholders, obligations, and risks that are transforming how internet companies operate and how they are valued by investors. Bond investors, unlike equity investors, don’t seek out unlimited upside, they focus on being compensated fairly for taking on risks, including those related to overinvestment that leads to a glut in supply.

“Any kind of large capital expenditure cycle that we have seen over history at some point leads to the risk of overinvestment,” said Mohit Mittal, chief investment officer of core strategies at global bond fund manager Pimco, which has about $2.3........

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