Bloomberg reported on 28 October 2026 that financial firms, companies and governments have raised a combined $6.61 trillion through investment-grade and junk-bond sales so far this year, up 15% from the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The report says the total has eclipsed 2025’s record with two months still to go, and attributes the surge to borrowing by the tech companies at the forefront of the AI boom.
Alphabet’s results release, published the same evening, shows the scale for one of them. By our sum of its cash flow statement, Alphabet took in $147.2 billion from issuing debt, common stock and preferred stock in the nine months to 30 September 2026, against $38.0 billion from debt issuance in the same period of 2025.
Business Pill · Free Cash Flow
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on free cash flow, the cash a company has left after capital expenditures. It explains the general idea only and does not discuss Alphabet, Microsoft or the bond market.
The key insight: By our sum of its cash flow statement, Alphabet raised $147.2 billion from debt, common stock and preferred stock in the first nine months of 2026, about 3.9 times the $38.0 billion of debt it issued in the same period of 2025.
Update, 28 Oct: the Treasury Secretary on AI credit. In an interview with CNBC’s Brian Sullivan published on 28 October, Sullivan asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent whether he was worried about the lower end of the credit spectrum, saying some AI-related debt was trading at double-digit yields.
Bessent replied: “We monitor all of this. I don’t think it’s problematic at all because we’re seeing that … the neoclouds are a small component of the overall ecosystem. And we’re still seeing the financing getting done. We’re still seeing the deals get done. And we’re also seeing companies like Meta decide to finance with equity.” (Quote transcribed from CNBC’s captions of the interview.)
Alphabet’s cash flow statement lists $85.2 billion of proceeds from issuing debt, net of costs, in the first nine months of 2026, against $38.0 billion a year earlier. It repaid $8.9 billion of debt over the same nine months.
The same statement lists $42.9 billion of proceeds from issuing common stock and $19.1 billion from mandatory convertible preferred stock in 2026, and none of either in the first nine months of 2025. By our arithmetic, the $147.2 billion total is about 3.9 times the $38.0 billion of 2025.
In the third quarter alone, the release says Alphabet issued senior unsecured notes for net proceeds of $28.7 billion, to be used for general corporate purposes. It sold Class A and Class C shares under its at-the-market program for net proceeds of $4.3 billion and $8.1 billion, and says $27.6 billion remained available under the program.
Share repurchases were zero in the first nine months of 2026, according to the cash flow statement, against $39.8 billion in the same period of 2025.
Alphabet cash proceeds from issuing debt (net of costs), common stock and mandatory convertible preferred stock, nine months to 30 September 2025 vs 2026, with share repurchases below each bar. Totals and the multiple are our arithmetic. Source: Alphabet Q3 2026 results release, consolidated statements of cash flows.
Where the Money Sits
Alphabet’s balance sheet puts long-term debt at $125.1 billion on 30 September 2026, against $46.5 billion on 31 December 2025, about 2.7 times higher by our arithmetic. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities rose to $265.1 billion from $126.8 billion.
Purchases of property and equipment were $132.0 billion in the nine months, against $127.1 billion of cash from operations, a gap of $4.8 billion by our arithmetic. In the third quarter, the release puts free cash flow, as Alphabet defines it, at negative $9.1 billion.
Microsoft Took the Other Path
Microsoft’s release for its quarter to 30 September 2026 shows $58.0 billion of cash from operations and $39.4 billion of additions to property and equipment. Its financing section lists $4.85 billion of debt repaid, $4.4 billion of stock repurchased and $6.8 billion of dividends paid, and no line for new debt issued.
Microsoft’s balance sheet puts long-term debt at $31.1 billion on 30 September 2026, unchanged from 30 June to the nearest $0.1 billion.
As we read the release, the raising ran well ahead of the spending gap: Alphabet’s nine-month capex exceeded its operating cash by $4.8 billion, by our arithmetic, while its cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities rose to $265.1 billion from $126.8 billion.
As we read the two releases, Alphabet and Microsoft, both reporting on 28 October, financed the quarter differently: Alphabet’s statement lists $28.7 billion of new notes and no buybacks, Microsoft’s lists $4.85 billion of debt repaid and $4.4 billion of stock repurchased.
Bloomberg’s total counts bond sales by financial firms, companies and governments worldwide; the share from technology companies is not given in the paragraphs we read.
Bloomberg, report by Gerson Freitas Jr. and Ronan Martin, 28 October 2026
“Global bond sales have soared to an all-time high, catapulted by breakneck borrowing from the tech juggernauts at the forefront of the AI boom”
Three Implications
FOR ALPHABET Long-term debt stood at $125.1 billion on 30 September 2026, against $46.5 billion at the end of 2025, according to its balance sheet.
FOR MICROSOFT Long-term debt was $31.1 billion on 30 September 2026, unchanged from 30 June to the nearest $0.1 billion, according to its balance sheet.
FOR THE BOND MARKET Bloomberg puts year-to-date sales at $6.61 trillion, up 15% from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The framework argues: “This is not a continuation of the cloud capex cycle.” It describes the subject of its analysis as the financing: how the money flows, where it cracks, what it buys and who can absorb it.
Alphabet’s release of 28 October shows one answer to the financing question for 2026: $147.2 billion raised from debt and equity in nine months, by our sum. The framework does not discuss these figures.
What Is Not Established
Bloomberg’s opening paragraphs, which are what we read, do not say how much of the $6.61 trillion came from technology companies or from Alphabet. We do not add Alphabet’s raising to Bloomberg’s total, because Bloomberg counts bond sales and Alphabet’s debt line covers all debt it issued.
Alphabet’s release says the third-quarter notes are for general corporate purposes. It does not tie the share sales or the debt to specific projects.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
Execution Fault Lines, Concentrated Demand, and Geopolitical Firewalls
This week’s issue: the AI build is not short of demand for its parts. It is short of cheap money, and its end revenue rests on a narrow base of large, often venture-funded buyers.
Alphabet raised $147.2 billion of debt and equity in nine months, by our sum, while its capex ran $4.8 billion ahead of its operating cash and its cash pile roughly doubled. Microsoft paid down $4.85 billion of debt in its latest quarter and kept buying back stock.
A note on sourcing. The bond-market total comes from Bloomberg’s report of 28 October 2026, of which we read the opening paragraphs. Alphabet figures come from its third-quarter 2026 results release and Microsoft figures from its fiscal 2027 first-quarter release (8-K, Exhibit 99.1), both of 28 October 2026. Sums, differences and multiples are our arithmetic; linked earlier pieces carry their own sources.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
