AI infrastructure debt hits $1.65 trillion off balance sheets

A report finds five major tech companies (Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle) carry roughly $1.65 trillion in data center financial obligations not reflected on their balance sheets, about 122% of what is officially reported. These liabilities appear only as footnotes and become payable once the data centers begin operating.

Why it matters: This is a significant signal about the financial structure underpinning the AI buildout: companies are using off-balance-sheet financing to fund data centers at a scale that dwarfs their reported debt. It raises questions about how sustainable current AI capex commitments are if returns on AI investment fall short, and adds context to the broader spending figures (like OpenAI's $750B infrastructure commitments) already circulating.