The companies building the artificial-intelligence economy are among the richest borrowers in corporate America. Yet the bond market now pays investors more than 6% a year to lend to every one of them, and two of them pay more than 7.5%.
As of Oct. 5, TradingView's bond screener shows 121 U.S.-listed bonds yielding above 6% to maturity. They come from Oracle Corp.
Yield to maturity is the annual return a buyer locks in today by holding the bond until it is repaid. It includes the gain from buying below face value.
Oracle accounts for 51 of those bonds. Amazon has 20, Microsoft 17, Meta 15, Alphabet 14 and SpaceX 4.
Only Oracle and SpaceX have bonds yielding above 7.5%.
Treasury Yields Set the Floor
Part of the story has nothing to do with the borrowers themselves.
The 30-year Treasury yield stands at 5.63%. That is up about 39 basis points over the past month. The 10-year yield is at 5.27%.
Every corporate bond is priced at a premium, or spread, over Treasuries. When the risk-free rate rises, corporate yields rise with it.
Debt-To-Capital Shows Who Is Stretched
Debt-to-capital measures how much of a company's funding comes from borrowing rather than from shareholders. A lower number means a thicker cushion for lenders.
Based on the latest quarterly balance sheets, Alphabet's ratio is 15.5%. Microsoft stands at 22.6%, SpaceX at 23.8%, Meta at 30.1% and Amazon at 30.5%.
Oracle is at 71.6%. It carries $169.1 billion of total debt against $67.2 billion of equity.
For most of the group, analysts see room to borrow more.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management global market strategist Jorn Veeneman estimated that the hyperscalers could add about $1.5 trillion of debt before their lease-adjusted leverage reaches the average for U.S. investment-grade industrial companies.
Morgan Stanley data for the first quarter put hyperscaler total leverage at 1.3 times earnings and net leverage at 0.5 times, against 2.4 times for the non-financial investment-grade universe.
The Real Debt Sits Off the Balance Sheet
Still, reported debt tells only part of the story.
S&P Global warned in July that "market participants are growing leery of quickly rising leverage" among issuers once valued for steady cash flow.
Moody's estimated in September that Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle have committed $969 billion to AI infrastructure, with $662 billion tied to data-center leases that have not yet started.
Those leases only appear as liabilities once the facilities go live.
For Oracle, the funding need is spelled out.
The company said in its fiscal fourth-quarter release that it raised $43 billion of debt in fiscal 2026 and plans to raise roughly $40 billion of debt and equity in fiscal 2027.
