Five US tech giants—Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Oracle—are pursuing a high-risk strategy by doubling their debt loads. Over the past five years, these five companies have accumulated a collective debt of $350 billion to fund the construction of massive-scale artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
This massive investment is aimed at building data centers projected to become the backbone of future revenue. However, this expansion drive is beginning to spark skepticism among investors. The relatively cool market response to Amazon's recent $25 billion bond issuance is a strong indication that investor confidence in the sustainability of AI spending is starting to waver.
The financial impact of this policy is becoming evident on each company's balance sheet. Throughout 2025, the combined interest expense of the five entities swelled to surpass $10 billion, more than double the figure in 2019. S&P Global Ratings even downgraded Oracle's debt rating to the lowest position in the investment-grade category due to the steadily climbing infrastructure spending burden.
Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson, highlighted a fundamental shift in the business models of global tech companies today. According to him, the transition toward reliance on AI infrastructure has exerted significant cash flow pressure, forcing companies to operate under far heavier operating burdens than before.
On the other hand, company leaders continue to show strong optimism regarding the prospects of these investments. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy believes that the monetization of this infrastructure will run smoothly in line with high customer commitment to cloud computing services. Echoing this, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that market demand for AI computing capacity still far outstrips the current supply.
Although the long-term vision is maintained, stock price movements in the capital markets send a different signal. To date, most of these companies—except Alphabet—have recorded stock performances lagging behind the S&P 500 index, reflecting deep doubts among market participants regarding the speed of investment return on their AI ambitions.
