Alphabet’s £1 billion century bond, issued in the sterling market earlier this year as part of a global debt binge, has slipped below 90 pence on the pound for the first time. That means investors who bought the 100-year bond at face value have already watched roughly 10% of their principal evaporate in a matter of months.
For a bond that was massively oversubscribed at launch, with demand reportedly reaching 10 times the offering size, the mood has shifted quickly.
A century bond for the AI age
Alphabet issued the bond in February 2026 as part of a larger multi-currency debt offering that exceeded $30 billion. The century bond was the headline act, marking the first 100-year bond from a major tech company since Motorola pulled off the same trick back in 1997.
The purpose was straightforward: fuel Alphabet’s enormous AI infrastructure buildout. The company has projected capital expenditures of roughly $175 billion to $185 billion for 2026, which would represent approximately double the capital spending from the prior year.
