By 2027, more than a third of Big Tech’s AI buildout could be bond-funded
AI is moving from the equity market into the bond market. Join Bruno Crastes live tomorrow to understand what that could mean for portfolios.
Goldman Sachs expects $400 billion of hyperscaler issuance next year. The wider financing footprint may be larger still.
The five hyperscalers at the centre of the AI buildout, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle, reported approximately $405 billion in capital expenditure in 2025.
Goldman Sachs expects that figure to reach roughly $750 billion in 2026 and $1.14 trillion in 2027.
The funding mix is changing with it.
The companies issued $108 billion of investment-grade bonds in 2025, equivalent to approximately 26% of their capex. In the first half of 2026, issuance had already reached $194 billion. Goldman expects it to approach $250 billion for the full year, or roughly 33% of capex.
For 2027, the projection is $400 billion of bond issuance against $1.14 trillion of capex - a 35% share.
Alphabet has already shown what this pressure can look like. Its capital spending pushed quarterly free cash flow to negative $5.9 billion in Q2, the company’s first negative quarter since listing. Its trailing-12-month free cash flow remained positive, but the direction is clear: internal cash generation is covering a smaller share of the buildout.
Jul 30th 2026, we are taking this apart live with Bruno Crastes, Co-founder of H20 Asset Management, who has spent more than 30 years across global bonds and currencies. What could this volume of borrowing mean for long-term yields, and where might it appear in portfolios?
And direct hyperscaler bond issuance is only one layer.
Goldman separately estimates that $489 billion of AI-related debt has been issued across the wider ecosystem in 2026, with hyperscalers accounting for approximately 40%. The remainder has come through data-centre finance, semiconductors, software and other parts of the infrastructure chain.
The structures are evolving too. Meta and BlackRock’s newly announced El Paso data-cententre venture has approximately $14 billion in development costs, with part of BlackRock’s investment funded through $12.5 billion of debt financing. Meta will lease the entire campus from the venture.
The point is not that a credit crisis is imminent. Many of the largest borrowers retain substantial financing capacity.
But capacity to issue and market appetite to absorb are separate questions.
Corporate supply on this scale is arriving in a bond market already absorbing heavy government borrowing. Both ultimately compete for duration demand. The Fed can influence the front end of the curve; the long end must still clear the volume.
This is not fiscal dominance by itself. It is where the AI capex cycle collides with it.
The AI trade is no longer only an equity story. It is becoming a bond-supply story, and one that could reach portfolios through yields, curves, currencies and asset allocation.
Four forces. One hour. Live.
Join Bruno Crastes, Co-Founder and Group Corporate and Market Strategy Director at H2O Asset Management, for:
Fiscal Dominance: The New Reality for Global Markets
🗓 Thursday, 30 July 2026
🕔 5:00 pm SGT/HKT | 2:30 pm IST | 1:00 pm GST
We will examine four forces reshaping the next market cycle:
How debt burdens are influencing monetary policy
Why a softer Fed may not mean lower long-term yields
Whether inflation is a shock or a regime
How AI capex looks against hard economic evidence
This is a live session with audience Q&A. Bring your questions and put them directly to Bruno.
Sources: Goldman Sachs credit strategy research led by Amanda Lynam, as reported by Yahoo Finance on 22 and 28 July 2026; Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings; Meta Platforms announcement dated 28 July 2026.