Google just pulled off one of the largest debt raises in tech history. The search giant increased its bond sale for a second time, pushing the total haul past $30 billion according to sources familiar with the deal. The massive capital injection comes as Google races to catch up with OpenAI and Microsoft in the generative AI wars, signaling the company is betting big on infrastructure buildout. For investors watching the AI arms race, this is the clearest sign yet that Google isn't messing around with its comeback strategy.
Google is opening the checkbook wide. The tech giant's bond sale ballooned past $30 billion after the company increased the offering size not once but twice, sources told CNBC. It's a staggering sum that puts Google's capital raise among the largest in technology sector history, and it's all earmarked for one thing: winning the AI infrastructure war.
The multiple size increases tell their own story. When a company keeps boosting a debt offering, it usually means one of two things - either investor demand is through the roof, or the company realized mid-deal it needs even more capital than originally planned. In Google's case, it's likely both. Bond investors are hungry for top-tier tech debt in an uncertain rate environment, and Google appears to be accelerating its AI buildout plans in real time.
This isn't Google's first rodeo with debt markets, but the scale is unprecedented for the company. The internet giant historically ran a relatively conservative balance sheet compared to peers, preferring to fund operations and acquisitions with its massive cash pile. But the AI era changed everything. Building and running large language models requires jaw-dropping amounts of computing power, which means building data centers, buying Nvidia chips by the truckload, and paying the electricity bills that come with it all.
