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Bloomberg Tech

Alphabet’s Mega Bond Plans Includes 100-Year Offering

09 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

2.495 - 21.027 Unknown

Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. Bloomberg Tech is live from coast to coast with Caroline Hyde in New York and Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.

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23.437 - 34.501 Caroline Hyde

This is Bloomberg Tech coming up. Alphabet looking to tap the debt markets with $15 billion in U.S. high grade and a super rare 100-year sterling denominated note. We have the details.

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34.781 - 42.458 Ed Ludlow

Plus, Bitcoin slips back below $70,000 after a roller coaster ride at the end of last week. We'll discuss where it can go from here.

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42.775 - 51.305 Caroline Hyde

And Apple set to debut a slew of new products in the coming weeks, including a new iPhone 17E and updated iPads and Macs.

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51.345 - 72.254 Ed Ludlow

First, we check in on these markets that bounce back for a second day. What a Friday close for the Nasdaq 100. And we build on that 2.5% higher with another 0.6% rebound as we really try to digest where the risks are in the tech markets. And, of course, as we look ahead to some of that jobs data later in the week. I'm looking at crypto, though. Roller coaster if you were trading it this weekend.

72.314 - 80.477 Ed Ludlow

We're back below 70,000, having a clip step for a moment on the weekend trading end. We'll dig into that a little bit later, but you're looking at the equity side of the equation, aren't you?

81.436 - 92.754 Caroline Hyde

Yeah, Alphabet. But actually, I'm going to do something a little unusual and go to the corporate debt and bond market. Really interesting. Alphabet looking to raise $15 billion from a U.S. high-grade dollar bond sale.

Chapter 2: What are Alphabet's plans for raising $15 billion in debt?

92.834 - 111.587 Caroline Hyde

Bloomberg reporting that, citing sources. But also going to the banks for a mandate, maybe to look at Swiss franc denominated. And then a super rare 100-year note, sterling denominated British pound. We haven't seen a 100-year note since like dot-com era, late 90s.

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111.988 - 122.648 Caroline Hyde

But the bigger picture is pretty clear, right, Caro, that we've seen big tech companies use debt markets to fund what's happening in capital expenditures. A lot more to discuss.

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122.628 - 137.903 Ed Ludlow

and a lot more bond sales probably to be digesting. Let's do it all with Robert Schiffman from Bloomberg Intelligence. We knew they had to finance the extraordinary amounts of AI capital expenditure. Is there enough demand to support these mega bond sales?

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137.883 - 156.537 Robert Schiffman

Yeah, I think, listen, let's start from the beginning. Do they actually need any money? My answer is no. I think they're borrowing money because they can, because it's super cheap, and that there's a concept that demand for not just AI, but bonds are so insatiable that they can go out and do 100-year maturity. So, yeah, there's tons of demand.

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156.697 - 161.967 Robert Schiffman

If Oracle is able to build a $130 billion book, Google can build whatever book it wants.

162.807 - 179.027 Caroline Hyde

This is why going back to basics is probably a good place to start. I agree with you. People would say, well, why is that a good idea? You know, they look at some of the mag seven names and the cash on their balance sheet and say, you know, why is that a useful mechanism for them?

179.007 - 198.552 Robert Schiffman

This is what they taught me in math camp. The weighted average cost of debt capital for all these names, whether it's Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, is effectively zero. Why do you have AA and AAA balance sheets if you're not going to use them? I think this is extraordinarily visionary.

198.532 - 214.089 Robert Schiffman

These companies have been prepping for years for greater investment opportunities, and now they finally see it. I think it's just such a bullish sign for this market. And from, again, the bondholder perspective, this is not equity holders being wary about multiples.

214.389 - 227.543 Robert Schiffman

Bondholders, I don't think, are gonna be able to get enough, and they're gonna be able to do it along every single part of the curve. And like you said, this isn't just gonna be dollars. They're going to the Swiss franc market, the pound market. I wouldn't be shocked if they went back

Chapter 3: What makes Alphabet's 100-year sterling-denominated note unique?

462.842 - 481.09 Caroline Hyde

You just heard Bloomberg Intelligence's Robert Shiffman, right? Oracle has been at the heart of this question on debt versus payoff. They've had a lot of demand when they've gone to the market, but we are worried, right? They've swung to negative free cash flow. They are taking on a lot of burden. You seem sanguine about that.

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482.656 - 508.067 Gil Luria

It's still risky. To be clear, Oracle really painted themselves in a corner when they took on this much business from OpenAI. And there were two risks. One is, would Oracle be able to get the capital to start the build out? And the second risk was, would OpenAI have the capital and the wherewithal to pay Oracle for those services. It now looks like Oracle will be successful in the fundraise.

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508.328 - 526.433 Gil Luria

It'll cause, it'll stretch them, but it looks like they'll be successful. And now it looks like OpenAI will also be successful in their own fundraise, so they'll be able to pay for it. So those two risks that we've had up until really a few weeks ago, up until a couple of weeks ago really,

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526.413 - 533.542 Gil Luria

are now look like they're going to go away and Oracle will be able to build the facilities and OpenAI will be able to pay for them.

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534.744 - 554.85 Ed Ludlow

Who else benefits in this scenario? Because I'm seeing notes out today saying, actually, they don't like NVIDIA. They don't like AMD. I'm talking about Lynx equities, for example, because they are worried that OpenAI isn't going to be there with a better update, with enough conviction to be able to be purchasing the chips that go inside the Oracle data center, Gil.

555.775 - 571.372 Gil Luria

Well, so now it looks like OpenAI will remain in the race for at least the foreseeable future. And the two biggest beneficiaries by far are Microsoft and Nvidia. Oracle is a marginal play on OpenAI because of how much of it is of their exposure.

571.912 - 595.912 Gil Luria

But really, if you look at the stock performance of Google versus Nvidia and Microsoft, that diversion over the last few months is a result of the market deciding Google's won and OpenAI's lost. That is not the case. The race is still on. Which means that OpenAI will spend the $250 billion on Microsoft, which now has by far the biggest backlog in AI compute.

596.734 - 616.509 Gil Luria

And then Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and others will turn around and spend that on NVIDIA chips. And so we have Nvidia and Microsoft with the best business they've ever had, for Microsoft maybe in 25 years, for Nvidia forever, they're both trading in the low 20s on earnings, which are historically low multiples.

616.549 - 622.618 Gil Luria

So it's a historic opportunity in Nvidia and Microsoft precisely because OpenAI will stay in the race.

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