"Hidden debt at U.S. tech giants swelled eightfold in roughly four years to an estimated $1.65 trillion as artificial intelligence investments ballooned, a Nikkei study shows, exceeding actual debt and making it tougher for investors to assess risk.
Nikkei examined recent financial statements and other materials from Google owner Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Oracle. The four companies aside from Oracle are scheduled to announce their second quarter earnings from Wednesday, meaning the figures may increase further.
The five companies' hidden debt, which does not appear on balance sheets, totaled $1.65 trillion in the most recent quarter, exceeding the roughly $1.35 trillion in debt reflected on their balance sheets. The data includes some estimates.
Meta's off-balance-sheet debt is particularly high at about $420 billion, nearly triple its recorded debt.
These companies are rapidly bolstering their data centers and other computing resources to power AI development, and are entering into long-term purchase agreements for graphics processing units (GPUs) and servers.
Constructing data centers requires investment in the billions or even tens of billions of dollars."
@remixtures Please AI bubble, can't you pop soon? I'm getting so tired of the acronyms "AI" and all the hypegasm. 🙏
