NEW YORK, February 11, 2026, 07:46 EST
- Alphabet sold a £1 billion 100-year bond as part of a $31.51 billion multi-currency debt raise.
- Demand for the century tranche was nearly ten times the offer, according to data cited in reports.
- The borrowing comes as Big Tech ramps up spending on AI data centres, chips and power.
Alphabet sold a rare 100-year bond on Feb. 10 as part of a $31.51 billion global bond raise, a memo from the lead manager showed, in the tech industry’s first century issue since Motorola’s 1997 deal, according to LSEG. The £1 billion tranche carried a 6.125% coupon and drew demand nearly ten times the size; Covenant Review analysts said the bonds had no “meaningful restrictive covenants,” or investor-protection terms written into debt contracts. “You have an extraordinary time period that we’re living through now with the change in technology,” said Jason Granet, chief investment officer at BNY. (Reuters)
The deal lands as Alphabet and its rivals pour money into artificial intelligence infrastructure that looks more like utilities building grid and steel than the old, asset-light internet model. “Clearly, we’re not in a typical capex (capital expenditure) cycle… the companies involved are now going deep into the well for financing,” said Andrew Dassori, chief investment officer at Wavelength Capital Management. (The Straits Times)
Alphabet’s U.S. dollar sale was split into seven tranches, with the longest piece maturing in 2066 and tightening to about 0.95 percentage point over U.S. Treasuries — the “spread”, or extra yield over government debt — after earlier talk around 1.2 points, according to reports. Morgan Stanley expects “hyperscalers”, the big cloud firms that run vast data centres, to borrow about $400 billion in 2026, up from $165 billion in 2025, a jump that could push U.S. high-grade issuance to a record $2.25 trillion. (euronews)
Alphabet has been telling investors the buildout will be huge and long-running. Data published by Bloomberg showed the company aimed to raise about $20 billion overall, including bonds maturing in February 2126, and demand reached about $100 billion in orders; Alphabet did not respond to a request for comment, NDTV reported. The company allocated $91 billion to computing infrastructure last year and told analysts it expects to spend $175 billion to $185 billion this year, the report said. (Ndtv)
Ahead of the pricing, Alphabet was expected to raise about $15 billion in a U.S. high-grade bond sale and drew more than $100 billion in orders, Reuters reported, citing Bloomberg and later updates. Barclays said borrowing tied to AI-related investments was expected to be the biggest driver of corporate bond issuance in 2026, as mega-cap tech firms shift from hoarding cash to financing data centres and chips. (Reuters)
The borrowing wave is not just Alphabet. Hyperscalers issued about $60 billion in bonds in the last three months of 2025, PitchBook data showed, and “there could be a half-trillion dollars more issued this year,” said John Atkins, a managing editor for U.S. bonds at a financial data and research firm. Investors have accepted tight pricing so far: “They paid very, very skinny spreads,” Atkins said. (Axios)
Alphabet’s move came days after it said it planned to spend up to $185 billion in capital expenditures this year to build the infrastructure that powers its AI services. Rivals including Meta, Amazon and Microsoft have laid out similarly vast spending plans, as the cost of building AI data centres drives even cash-rich firms into debt markets. (Fortune)
The debt is arriving in multiple currencies, and the scale is starting to look competitive as well as financial. Alphabet is seeking at least $7.5 billion in sterling and $3.6 billion in Swiss francs, Business Insider reported, as it pushes deeper into the AI buildout. Among its closest peers, Alphabet is expected to spend at least $175 billion in 2026, behind Amazon’s $200 billion, and its bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA+ by S&P Global. (Business Insider)
But ultra-long debt comes with its own traps. Century bonds carry heavy interest-rate risk — if rates rise, prices can fall sharply — and investors also take on long-dated credit risk and business-model risk over decades, Business Standard reported. Analysts have also warned that such large borrowing requirements could pressure bond valuations over time if the market’s appetite cools. (Business Standard)
For now, Alphabet found buyers for paper that will outlive most investment funds, and maybe a few currencies. The harder part comes later: proving that AI-heavy capital spending can throw off cash quickly enough to keep debt from becoming a drag.
