Nearly $500 billion in debt has been issued in 2026, and I was genuinely shocked after reading this report. It raises an important question: is Big Tech borrowing too much to fund the AI boom?
According to an investigation by Nikkei Asia, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle together could have around $1.65 trillion in liabilities outside their public balance sheets, compared with roughly $1.35 trillion in liabilities officially disclosed in the previous quarter.
The AI race is no longer being funded only by rising stock prices and huge cash reserves. America’s biggest technology companies are increasingly relying on debt to build data centres, buy AI chips, and expand computing infrastructure. The Magnificent Seven now hold more than $600 billion in debt, and Big Tech has already issued about $200 billion in corporate bonds in 2026, nearly twice the amount raised during all of 2025.
What is attracting attention now is the credit market. The cost of insuring this debt through five-year credit default swaps (CDS) has risen sharply across major AI-linked companies.
Oracle has seen the biggest increase, with its CDS rising about 70 basis points to around 215 basis points. Broadcom is up 48 basis points, Meta 39 basis points, Nvidia about 32 basis points, while Amazon and Alphabet have also recorded notable increases.
A higher CDS spread does not mean these companies are expected to default. It simply means investors are demanding a higher premium to protect themselves against potential deterioration in credit quality.
The AI boom is creating enormous opportunities, but it is also creating enormous financing needs. The real question is whether future AI profits will justify the scale of debt being taken on today.
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