AI borrowing spree accelerates, surpassing Wall Street forecasts

The biggest tech companies on Earth are borrowing money at a pace that has caught even Wall Street off guard. AI-focused hyperscalers have issued between $159 billion and more than $220 billion in bonds so far in 2026, already surpassing the entire total from 2025, which clocked in at roughly $108 billion to $120 billion. Goldman Sachs now projects that AI-related debt issuance could reach nearly $489 billion to $500 billion by year’s end. To put that in perspective, the same companies issued just $13 billion to $17 billion in 2024. Who’s writing the biggest checks Amazon is leading the charge with approximately $53 billion in debt commitments to fund its AI infrastructure buildout. Oracle follows at around $25 billion, with Alphabet close behind at roughly $20 billion. The reason is straightforward: capital expenditures have outgrown internal cash flows. Building data centers, stockpiling advanced chips, and laying the physical groundwork for AI at scale costs more than even trillion-dollar companies can comfortably self-finance. The projected AI ecosystem capital expenditure for 2026 sits at $725 billion to $740 billion, with estimates climbing past $1 trillion for 2027. The cred...