The Zhitong Finance App learned that Amazon (AMZN.US) launched its first pound-denominated bond issuance on Wednesday, divided into four batches, with periods ranging from 3 to 19 years, continuing to raise funds for its artificial intelligence (AI) “arms race” through the global bond market.
According to people familiar with the matter, the term of the bonds issued this time ranges from 3 to 19 years. The initial pricing discussion ranges for each term type are: the 3-year term is about 70 basis points higher than the yield on British Treasury bonds, about 90 basis points for the 6-year term, about 105 basis points for the 12-year term, and about 110 basis points for the 19-year term.
The deal, with J.P. Morgan Chase, Barclays, HSBC Holdings and NatWest Group as bookkeeping managers, is expected to be priced late Wednesday local time.
According to information, this bond issuance is the first time that Amazon has included the British pound in its financing currency layout. Since this year, hyperscale technology companies have drastically switched to issuing bonds in markets other than the US to diversify funding sources and meet the huge capital expenses brought about by AI infrastructure.
According to LSEG data, such companies have issued more than 200 billion US dollars in bonds so far this year, more than double the full year of 2025. Amazon is the largest issuer of bonds among them, and has sold securities worth more than 92 billion US dollars.
This is also the fourth time this year that Amazon has issued bonds in the non-US dollar market. In March, the company first issued Eurobonds, setting the record for the largest corporate bond in this currency at the time; it also completed a record issuance of six maturities in the Swiss franc market and completed the largest debt financing in history in the Canadian dollar market.
Amazon's current move is also quite similar to the path of the previous Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL.US), which has actively developed new financing channels around the world to meet AI-related spending needs. In February of this year, Alphabet issued 5.5 billion pounds (about 7.5 billion US dollars) of bonds, including rare 100-year bonds, which attracted nearly £30 billion in subscription demand. Since then, Alphabet has also entered the Australian dollar and yen bond markets one after another.
Although global financing windows continue to open, investors' acceptance of AI-related debt is being tested. Demand for the recent issuance of hyperscale corporate bonds has cooled down, and issuance costs have also risen compared to earlier times. In the last bond financing in July, Amazon issued $25 billion in bonds, but subscription demand has weakened compared to the past.
The ECB warned earlier this month that the influx of hyperscale companies into the Eurozone bond market could crowd out other borrowers and drive up their financing costs.
Analysts Robert Schiffman (Robert Schiffman) and Suchi Trivedi (Suchi Trivedi) pointed out, “Amazon's first pound bond highlights the broader problem facing hyperscale companies — how much debt can the market absorb in a context where AI investments drive repeated debt issuance? Looking at it now, the market is still willing to absorb hundreds of billions of new debts.”
They also added that the supply of large technology company bonds in the British pound bond market is relatively limited, which will provide demand support for Amazon's current offering. However, the 19-year model will still be a test of investors' will — that is, whether the market is willing to take longer risks for the long-term capital requirements related to AI.