Alphabet Seeks $9.4 Billion From Pound, Swiss Franc Bond Sales
(Bloomberg) — Alphabet Inc. is selling at least $9.4 billion in sterling and Swiss franc-denominated bonds, including an ultra-rare issue of a 100-year note, following a bumper deal in the US.
The sterling offering is expected to be a record £4.5 billion ($6.2 billion) and includes tenors of three to 32 years as well as the 100-year bond, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. The Google parent drew a record £24 billion of bids, they said.
The Swiss offering will be a minimum of 2.45 billion Swiss francs ($3.2 billion) across maturities of three, six, 10, 15 and 25 years. Both deals are expected to price later today.
“The market in Europe will be able to absorb this supply,” said Jack Daley, a portfolio manager at TwentyFour Asset Management. For the sterling offering, “there will be a large demand and especially as a deal of this size will become a larger portion of the index.”
On Monday, Alphabet raised $20 billion in a seven-part dollar debt sale, exceeding earlier expectations for a $15 billion deal. It attracted more than $100 billion of orders at its peak — among the strongest ever for a corporate bond offering.
That set the tone for today’s offerings. All of the dollar tranches have gained in value on the secondary market, “showing there is very much demand for these names,” said Daley.
The previous record corporate bond sale in the sterling market came from National Grid Plc in 2016 with a £3 billion ($4.1 billion) four-part sale, while in the Swiss market Roche Holding AG raised a record 3 billion Swiss francs in a 2022 deal.
Read: Alphabet Embarks on Global Bond Spree to Fund Record Spending
The mega debt spree comes after Alphabet said its capital expenditures will reach as much as $185 billion this year — double what it spent last year — to finance its ambitions in artificial intelligence.
Other tech firms, including Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp., have also announced huge spending plans for 2026, while Morgan Stanley expects borrowing by the massive cloud-computing companies known as hyperscalers to reach $400 billion this year, up from $165 billion in 2025.
Still, those massive borrowing needs have started to raise some concerns about potential pressure on bond valuations.
100-Year Bond
Alphabet’s 100-year note is the first sale with such an extreme maturity by a technology firm since Motorola sold this type of debt in 1997, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The market for 100-year bonds is dominated by governments and institutions like universities. For corporates, potential acquisitions, outdated business models and technological obsolescence make such deals a rarity.
“I could not justify taking such a long maturity bond in most companies — especially not one subject to an ever-changing landscape,” said Alex Ralph, co-portfolio manager of Nedgroup Investments Global Strategic Bond Fund. “100-year bonds tend to have a habit of calling the top of a market as well.”
Still, demand from UK pension funds and insurers has made sterling a go-to market for issuers seeking longer-dated funding.
Investors turned out in force for the tranche, which attracted a record £5.75 billion of bids, according to people familiar with the matter.
Global corporates have also been turning to the Swiss franc bond market in recent years to diversify their debt-raising programs. In 2025, US firms including Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and construction equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. sold Swiss franc debt.
Alphabet tapped the euro bond market as recently as November, raising €6.5 billion ($7.7 billion). That deal, added to an issue earlier in the year, made it the biggest borrower in the euro market in 2025, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are arranging both offerings, with Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and NatWest Group Plc also on the sterling deal. BNP Paribas SA and Deutsche Bank AG are on the Swiss franc issue.
(Updates with demand for the 100-year sterling tranche)
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