Google’s parent company Alphabet is offering a rare 100-year bond in sterling markets after its original $20bn (€16.8bn) US dollar bond sale was massively oversubscribed. This makes it the first tech company to sell a century bond since Motorola in 1997.
Alphabet has put an extremely rare 100-year bond up for offer on sterling markets but only for the small amount of £1bn (€1.15bn).
The company has received almost ten times that number in orders for this limited deal amid a credit-driven competition for AI dominance, according to reports.
This Monday, Alphabet sold $20bn (€16.8bn) in US dollar bonds. The sale was reportedly upsized from the $15bn (€12.6bn) initially planned due to a huge inflow of demand surpassing $100bn (€84bn) in orders.
The company is now planning to issue bonds across multiple currencies, including the sterling offering of the century bond. A Swiss franc sale may also be imminent.
This will be the first issuance of a century bond by a tech company in almost 30 years. The last one was sold by Motorola in 1997.
The US dollar side of the deal is broken up into seven tranches with the longest piece being a 40-year bond maturing in 2066. Originally, it was expected for this debt to trade 1.2% higher than US Treasuries, but the price is forecast to tighten to around 0.95%.
The sale saw the strongest demand at the short end, with the three-year bonds being priced at only 0.27% above US Treasuries.
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America are across Alphabet's bond sales in all three currencies.
Multi-currency debt raise
There can be several advantages to a multi-currency debt raise, and therefore potential reasons why Alphabet has chosen this strategy.
Firstly, it can help diversify the company's investor base, which is particularly important in the current climate — as Big Tech's capital needs to scale AI infrastructure keep soaring.
By tapping into global markets instead of sticking to dollar markets alone, Alphabet is avoiding creating a supply-demand imbalance that would balloon the price of the company's debt, and consequently lower the yield of its bonds, discouraging investors.
Additionally, sterling markets also offer a lower interest rate compared to dollar bonds, which makes the potential century bond more cost-effective, attracting investors.
Record year for Big Tech debt
Alphabet's borrowing spree comes shortly after the company announced record AI capex spending of more than $185bn (€155bn), which is approximately double last year's, to fuel the development of Gemini and cloud infrastructure.
To fund this, the tech firm's long-term debt has already quadrupled to $46.5bn (€39bn) in 2025. The company is, however, sitting on more than $125bn in cash to deploy.
Other Big Tech companies have also followed suit. Just last week, Oracle raised $25bn (€21bn) from a bond sale that also pulled a record $129bn (€108bn) in buy orders.
In fact, Morgan Stanley estimates that tech hyperscalers will borrow around $400bn (€335.7bn) in 2026, more than double the $165bn (€138.5bn) that was loaned out in 2025.
This surge could push the total issuance of high-grade US corporate bonds to a record $2.25tn (€1.88tn) in 2026.
