Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has raised $3.89 billion through its first debt issuance in Australian dollars, according to a preliminary document seen by Reuters, adding to a fast-moving wave of fundraising by global technology firms.
The US technology giant raised the sum by selling bonds with maturities of three, five, ten and twenty years, the prospectus showed. The coupon on the longest-dated notes, the 20-year bonds, was set at 6.9%, according to the document.
Alphabet did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The document showed that orders from investors for the A$5.5 billion debt sale topped A$18 billion, a sign of strong demand from investors for new bonds from technology companies.
Tech Firms Turn to Debt Markets for AI Spending
Global technology companies are increasingly turning to capital markets to help fund their spending on artificial intelligence, having traditionally relied on large cash reserves to cover such investments. Companies are expected to spend more than $730 billion this year, largely on AI, and that spending is already straining cash flow. Alphabet reported its first negative free cash flow in its second-quarter results, released at the end of July.
First Kangaroo Bond Since Apple
Alphabet became the first AI hyperscaler to tap the Australian dollar debt market and the first major US technology company to issue a so-called Kangaroo Bond, a bond sold in Australian dollars by a foreign issuer, since Apple did so in 2016.
The fundraising follows recent Alphabet bond sales in British pounds, Swiss francs, Canadian dollars, Japanese yen and euros. Bonds denominated in local currencies are becoming increasingly popular among some of the world's largest issuers as they look to diversify and reduce their reliance on dollar-denominated debt.
Analysts See Historic Deal
Chamath De Silva, head of fixed income at Betashares, Australia's largest manager of fixed income and cash exchange-traded funds, said Alphabet's inaugural Kangaroo Bond issuance was a historic transaction for Australia's corporate bond market.
De Silva said he expected Amazon to be the next company to enter the Kangaroo market, noting that, along with Alphabet, it was one of the few hyperscale companies that had actively diversified its financing programme beyond the US dollar this year.
He said the strong demand showed that institutional investors in Australia had both the capacity and the appetite to support large-scale issuances from the world's biggest technology companies.
Record Year for Kangaroo Bonds
Sales of Kangaroo bonds by foreign issuers in Australian dollars have reached a record of about A$60 billion this year, an increase of roughly 40% compared with 2025, according to LSEG data tracking international deals through the end of July.
ANZ, Deutsche Bank, RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities acted as joint lead managers on the Alphabet transaction.
