Amazon Borrows Billions to Fund AI Expansion Amazon has turned to global debt markets and major banks to rapidly expand its artificial intelligence infrastructure, underscoring both its ambition and the mounting financial risks of the AI race.

In early June, Amazon completed Canada’s largest-ever corporate bond sale, raising C$14 billion (about $10 billion) in investment‑grade bonds denominated in Canadian dollars. The offering, split across five tranches of senior unsecured notes maturing between three and 30 years, surpassed Alphabet’s C$8.5 billion Canadian bond record set just a month earlier.

Proceeds from the bond sale were earmarked for “general corporate purposes,” including capital expenditures and debt repayment, but analysts pointed to AI infrastructure as the real driver. Amazon is expected to spend close to $200 billion this year on data centers, chips, and related infrastructure, up sharply from roughly $83 billion in 2024 and $125 billion in 2025, signaling an accelerating investment trajectory into 2027.

Within roughly 48 hours of the Canadian deal, Amazon locked in an additional $17.5 billion loan from a syndicate of major lenders including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, HSBC, and BofA Securities. Structured as a delayed draw term loan, the facility allows Amazon to tap the funds over time, giving the company flexibility in how it deploys the capital as AI projects ramp up.

Analysts see Amazon’s moves as part of a broader pattern among hyperscalers: Alphabet has outlined plans to raise $80 billion through a stock sale, while Meta is pursuing a $30 billion bond sale, both to help fund AI build‑outs. Across the sector, companies are “burning through exorbitant sums of money to keep pace in the AI arms race,” and debt levels are climbing. The consensus is that such spending is necessary to stay competitive, but a key question for investors now is whether these unprecedented outlays will ultimately generate returns that justify the borrowing.

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