The AI boom needs power, cooling, and an almost incomprehensible amount of money. Columbia Threadneedle Investments estimates that cumulative global investment in AI data centers will reach approximately $5.8 trillion between 2025 and 2030, a figure the firm itself suggests could be conservative.
A bond issuance spree with few historical parallels
Tech hyperscalers, the usual suspects of Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle, have been issuing debt at a pace that makes previous cycles look quaint. In 2025 alone, these companies collectively issued around $121 billion in bonds. That’s more than four times the five-year average.
Oracle alone raised $18 billion in a single bond sale in September 2025, earmarked for data center buildouts tied to its partnership with OpenAI. Total hyperscaler debt issuance recently reached approximately $244 billion globally.
Columbia Threadneedle’s October 2025 analysis describes this as a “multi-year demand shock” for capital.
