US companies flock to Europe’s bond markets amid AI debt surge
American tech giants have sold over €60 billion in euro bonds this year as AI spending outpaces internal cash flows
US companies are flooding European bond markets at a pace never seen before, driven by an insatiable need to fund AI infrastructure that their own balance sheets can no longer fully support.
The numbers are staggering. US non-financial firms have sold over €60 billion in euro-denominated bonds in 2026 alone, setting a new record. Morgan Stanley estimates that hyperscalers could issue an additional €50 billion in euros before the year is out.
September 9 was the breaking point
On September 9, 2026, the highest number of US bond issuers hit European markets on a single day, according to Bloomberg data. Amazon debuted sterling bonds for the first time. Uber made its first appearance in euros.
In March, Amazon dropped a €14.5 billion eight-part euro bond deal, the largest euro corporate bond offering ever recorded.
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Five major hyperscalers, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle, now have roughly €40 billion in outstanding euro-denominated bonds. That figure represents nearly 10% of all new euro non-financial corporate issuance.
AI spending is the engine behind the borrowing binge
Capital expenditures related to artificial intelligence are estimated between $650 billion and $725 billion for 2026. By 2028, total spending is projected to surpass $1 trillion.
The European Central Bank has flagged concerns that the wave of US corporate issuance could crowd out European borrowers and potentially inflate yields across the European corporate bond market.