Adding to the concerns, companies are indulging in some creative accounting. Meta Platforms sealed a US$27 billion financing package in late October for its massive data centre in rural Louisiana, using a joint venture structure with private lender Blue Owl Capital to keep the borrowing off-balance-sheet and its pristine credit rating intact. This kind of financial engineering is getting increasingly common.
As a debt-fuelled AI investment boom takes off, especially in cloud and data centres, many are worried that a tech bubble is forming in the global economy.
Big Tech has been rushing to sell corporate bonds lately. Five companies — Amazon.com, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Oracle — have raised US$93 billion ($121.2 billion) this year, more than the previous three years combined.
