• Alphabet upsizes its bond sale to $20 billion due to overwhelming investor demand exceeding $100 billion.
  • The sterling tranche features a rare 100-year bond that attracted the highest bids among all offerings.
  • This issuance is part of a broader Big Tech borrowing surge to fund AI infrastructure, with Morgan Stanley (MS) projecting $400 billion in tech hyperscaler debt for 2026.

Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, has successfully priced a $20 billion multi-currency bond offering, with its sterling tranche including a century bond that received the highest bids among all tranches, according to people familiar with the matter. The company initially targeted $15 billion but upsized the sale on February 9, 2026, after orders flooded in, surpassing $100-140 billion in total demand.

This marks the first tech century bond issuance since Motorola's in 1997, breaking from prior tech offerings that typically capped at 40 years. The move reflects Alphabet's aggressive financing strategy to support its record AI capital expenditures, projected to double to $185 billion in 2026. With cash reserves over $125 billion but long-term debt quadrupling to $46.5 billion in 2025, the bond sale helps fund AI infrastructure without straining its balance sheet.

"The demand for the sterling century bond was particularly strong, indicating investor appetite for long-dated tech paper," said one source close to the deal, who requested anonymity because the details are private. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the pricing specifics, but market data shows the bonds are trading up in secondary markets following the U.S. dollar portion of the sale.

The offering is part of a multi-currency strategy that includes U.S. dollars, British pounds, and Swiss francs, allowing Alphabet to diversify its investor base and tap into lower sterling rates while avoiding overloading the U.S. dollar market. This approach mirrors recent moves by peers like Oracle (ORCL), which raised $25 billion last week with $129 billion in orders, highlighting a competitive landscape for Big Tech debt.

Analysts note that century bonds suit a narrow buyer pool, primarily pension funds and insurers seeking long-term, stable returns, but they carry risks over 100 years given the rapid evolution of technology. Without this financing, Alphabet might face constraints in scaling its AI initiatives, which are critical to maintaining its edge in cloud computing and services like Google Search and YouTube.

Efforts to secure funding have proceeded smoothly, with no reported snags in the issuance process. The bond sale comes amid a broader surge in tech borrowing, with Morgan Stanley estimating $400 billion in tech hyperscaler debt for 2026, up from $165 billion in 2025, potentially driving U.S. high-grade corporate bond issuance to a record $2.25 trillion. This trend echoes the dot-com era's aggressive financing but with a focus on AI-driven growth.

In the short term, the bonds were priced tightly, with the 3-year U.S. dollar tranche at 0.27% over Treasuries, and the century sterling bond attracting top bids due to its rarity and yield appeal. Long-term, this enables Alphabet to scale its AI operations amid rising competition, though experts caution that such long-dated instruments require careful risk assessment given tech's volatile nature.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the total demand figure; it has been updated to reflect that orders exceeded $100-140 billion, not a fixed amount. The article also clarifies that this is Alphabet's first century bond, not the first in tech history, with IBM (IBM) issuing one in 1996.