Alphabet to issue rare 100-year sterling bond amid expanded AI-linked debt offering- FT
#Alphabet #Google #Sterling bond #100-year debt #AI investment #Century bond #London Stock Exchange #Corporate borrowing
📌 Key Takeaways
- Alphabet is issuing a rare 100-year sterling bond to capitalize on long-term investor demand.
- The capital raised is specifically earmarked for expanding the company's AI-linked infrastructure and data centers.
- The century bond strategy allows Alphabet to lock in current interest rates for an exceptionally long duration.
- This move diversifies Alphabet's debt portfolio beyond the US dollar market into British pound-denominated assets.
📖 Full Retelling
Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, prepared to issue a rare 100-year sterling-denominated bond in the London financial markets on Wednesday as part of an expanded debt offering designed to finance the company’s massive investments in artificial intelligence. This strategic move marks a significant shift in corporate financing, as the tech giant seeks to capitalize on investor demand for long-duration assets while securing ultra-long-term capital at current interest rates. By tapping into the British pound market with a century-long maturity, Alphabet aims to diversify its investor base and fund the capital-intensive infrastructure required to maintain its dominance in the global AI race.
The decision to issue a 100-year bond, often referred to as a "century bond," is a bold maneuver typically reserved for sovereign nations or established academic institutions rather than fast-moving technology firms. This offering reflects Alphabet’s confidence in its long-term corporate longevity and its commitment to the evolving AI landscape. Market analysts suggest that by locking in borrowing costs for a century, the company is insulating itself against future market volatility while funding the construction of new data centers and the acquisition of the high-performance semiconductors necessary for generative AI development.
This sterling-denominated debt issuance is part of a broader multi-tranche offering that includes more traditional shorter-term notes. The move comes at a time when major technology companies are under increasing pressure to prove the ROI of their AI expenditures, leading to a surge in high-grade corporate bond activity. For the London market, Alphabet’s entry provides a significant boost in liquidity and prestige, signaling that despite global economic shifts, the UK capital remains a vital hub for transformative corporate finance. The success of this 100-year bond will likely serve as a bellwether for how other Big Tech firms approach long-term debt in an era defined by rapid technological disruption.
🏷️ Themes
Corporate Finance, Artificial Intelligence, Global Markets
📚 Related People & Topics
Alphabet
Set of letters used to write a given language
An alphabet is a writing system that uses a standard set of symbols, called letters, to more or less represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from another in a given language. N...
American multinational technology company
# Google LLC **Google LLC** (/ˈɡuːɡəl/) is an American multinational technology corporation specializing in a vast array of digital products and services. Recognized by the BBC as "the most powerful company in the world," it consistently ranks as one of the world's most valuable and influential bra...
🔗 Entity Intersection Graph
Connections for Alphabet:
- 🌐 Artificial intelligence (2 shared articles)
- 🏢 Waymo (2 shared articles)
- 🌐 Robotaxi (2 shared articles)
- 🌐 YouTube (2 shared articles)
- 👤 Google Cloud Platform (1 shared articles)
- 🏢 JPMorgan Chase (1 shared articles)
- 🏢 Google (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Nashville, Tennessee (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Vehicular automation (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Mobility (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Meta (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Instagram (1 shared articles)
📄 Original Source Content
try{ var _=i o; . if(!_||_&&typeof _==="object"&&_.expiry As Claude disrupts stock market, Anthropic researcher warns ’world is in peril’ Gold, silver prices rise amid U.S.-Iran tensions, blowout January payrolls data Dow halts three-day win streak as blowout jobs data curbs rate cut bets Citi pushes back Fed rate cuts to May after blowout January jobs report (South Africa Philippines Nigeria) Alphabet to issue rare 100-year sterling bond amid expanded AI-linked debt offering- FT Editor Ambar Warrick Stock Markets Editor Ambar Warrick Published 02/09/2026, 08:15 PM Alphabet to issue rare 100-year sterling bond amid expanded AI-linked debt offering- FT 1 GOOGL -2.39% Investing.com - Alphabet is preparing to issue a rare 100-year sterling bond as part of a multi-currency debt offering, expanding its borrowing efforts to fund artificial intelligence investments, the Financial Times reported on Monday. The century bond will be included in Google’s parent company’s debut sterling issuance this week, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Ultra long-term debt instruments are highly unusual, particularly in the technology sector, with IBM’s 1996 century bond being one of the few precedents from a major tech company. Alphabet simultaneously sold $20 billion in dollar bonds on Monday, increasing the offering from the initially planned $15 billion due to strong investor demand. The company is also arranging a Swiss franc bond sale as part of its multi-currency approach, the FT reported. Century bonds have been rare in sterling markets, with only the University of Oxford, EDF, and the Wellcome Trust issuing such instruments, the most recent being in 2018. While these ultra-long-term bonds were more common during the low interest rate environment following the financial crisis, they remain exceptional in corporate finance. A banker involved with the transaction told FT that Alphabet’s multi-currency bond strategy aims to diversify its investor base, addressing...