lphabet Inc. is borrowing far and wide to finance the unprecedented spending plan behind its artificial intelligence ambitions, and investors can’t seem to get enough.
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The Google parent raised $20 billion in its biggest ever US dollar bond sale on Monday — more than the $15 billion initially expected, after racking up one of the biggest order books of all time. It’s also planning debut deals in Switzerland and the UK, including a rare sale of 100-year bonds — marking the first time a tech company has tried such an offering since the dotcom frenzy of the late 1990s.
The big borrowing spree comes just days after tech companies from Meta Platforms Inc. to Amazon.com Inc. said they were ramping up spending to meet their ambitious artificial intelligence plans. Their plans fanned fears that the AI arms race, and the billions of dollars of debt needed to help fund it, would weigh on credit markets.
Investors appeared to push those concerns to the side on Monday, as the Alphabet bond sale drew more than $100 billion of orders.
