The offering draws roughly US$115 billion of peak demand, according to people with knowledge of the matter
Published Fri, Aug 7, 2026 · 06:45 AM
[NEW YORK] Alphabet sold US$25 billion of investment-grade bonds after generous yield payouts helped secure one of the year’s largest order books for artificial intelligence-related debt.
The Thursday (Aug 6) offering attracted roughly US$115 billion of peak demand, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
That is behind just the record US$129 billion of demand for Oracle’s February deal and the roughly US$126 billion of orders that Amazon’s March sale attracted.
The strong investor reception for Alphabet’s notes underscores a shift in sentiment, after a flood of debt offerings and concerns about excessive spending on AI infrastructure fuelled a sell-off in technology bonds last month. The market backdrop has since improved, paving the way for new issuance.
More-generous-than-usual premiums helped drive demand for the deal, pushing Alphabet’s debt issuance since the start of 2025 above US$114 billion and again making it the biggest seller of AI-related bonds over that period.
The Google and YouTube parent told investors through its bond dealers on Thursday that it plans to issue US debt twice a year, some of the people said, asking not to be identified because they are now allowed to speak publicly.
The message appeared aimed at easing investor concerns over additional sales of technology bonds.
The company sold notes across 10 tranches, with maturities ranging from two to 40 years. The yield premium for the longest tenor is 1.3 percentage points above Treasuries, tighter from initial talk of 1.55 percentage points.
“These deals need higher concessions due to investor appetite softening,” said Tony Trzcinka, a portfolio manager at Impax Asset Management.
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The firms and the banks managing the transaction – Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo – either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
Alphabet priced US$20 billion of bonds in February, a deal that attracted roughly US$103 billion of demand.
It subsequently issued notes in Swiss francs, British pounds, euros, Canadian dollars and Japanese yen – with debt sales ultimately exceeding US$50 billion in the first half of the year. The company also sold nearly US$85 billion of shares.
The US dollar bonds in February’s deal weakened on Thursday and are trading wider than where they priced, according to Trace data.
Investor appetite for AI-related debt to help fund capital expenditures cooled in July as Alphabet increased its spending forecast to as much as US$205 billion, more than double 2025’s outlays.
Capital spending contributed to Alphabet in July posting its first quarter of negative cash flow since its 2004 initial public offering.
A BlackRock-linked firm last week sold US$12.5 billion of bonds tied to a Meta Platforms data centre project in Texas. Early demand was lacklustre and the deal was a rare high-grade transaction to price at initial talk.
That followed soft interest for an offering by Amazon and spreads widening in the secondary market for newly issued AI-related notes from firms including SpaceX.
Alphabet was among eight firms selling investment-grade bonds on Thursday. This week’s volume has reached US$80 billion, the third-most in 2026, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. BLOOMBERG