Alphabet Weighs First Hong Kong and Singapore Dollar Bonds, People Familiar Say

Alphabet has held talks about selling its first bonds in Hong Kong dollars and Singapore dollars, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. The company has spoken with banks and investors about a deal as early as this month, they said.

The people said Alphabet is looking to raise the equivalent of $1 billion to $1.5 billion in Hong Kong dollars and around $1.5 billion in Singapore dollars. Proceeds would go to general corporate purposes. Discussions are ongoing and details could still change, they said.

Alphabet declined to comment, saying it does not comment on market speculation. No deal has been announced.

A borrowing spree across currencies

The Asia talks follow a year of unusually wide-ranging debt sales by the Google parent. In February it sold a rare 100-year sterling bond. In May it raised €9 billion in six tranches. In August it sold its first Australian dollar bonds. It has also issued notes in Swiss francs, British pounds, Canadian dollars and Japanese yen this year.

Last week, on Monday, Nov. 2, Alphabet returned to the euro market with a €6 billion ($6.7 billion) offering in seven tranches, maturing in two to 19 years. A memo from one of the arranging banks showed demand just over €17 billion. Barclays, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank ran the deal, according to the company's SEC filing.

That sale was more expensive. According to Bloomberg's reporting, Alphabet paid materially higher borrowing costs than in its May euro deal, as concerns grew over the pace of AI spending.

The numbers behind the need for cash

The money is going somewhere big. Alphabet expects capital spending of as much as $205 billion this year, most of it on data centers and chips. As of Sept. 30, it had also signed leases, mainly for data centers, that have not yet started, with future payments of $130.5 billion that are not yet on its balance sheet, the SEC filing shows.

Its third-quarter results landed badly. Shares fell more than 12% on Thursday, Oct. 29, the worst day in the company's history, erasing roughly $500 billion in market value. The results showed slower-than-expected growth in Google Search and cash burn that rattled investors. The stock fell nearly 19% in October, its worst month on record.

Microsoft was the only Big Tech company generating cash in the quarter, according to the Reuters report on the euro sale. Amazon also posted disappointing results.

Selloff spreads, bond market reprices

The pressure did not ease last week. The Nasdaq fell 5.5% on Thursday, Nov. 5, its worst day since April 2025, when President Trump unveiled his global tariffs. Tokyo and Seoul each closed Friday down about 6%. Bloomberg said the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell around 16% on the week.

Analysts tied part of the move to politics. Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said the data-center build-out "looks set to slow," threatening the spending that underpins the AI boom just as investors question returns. Data centers have drawn opposition from voters across the political spectrum, AFP reported, and many midterm winners have pledged to slow such projects. Analysts also pointed to Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for a national moratorium on building them.

Credit markets are moving too. According to Bloomberg, credit spreads for some technology issuers have widened, speeding a repricing already underway in global debt, where a borrowing binge tied to the AI boom has pushed yields higher.

Not everyone reads the panic as justified. Neil Wilson, an analyst at Saxo Markets, wrote that "the blood is in the streets," but added that the selloff looked overdone. He described the fear as a "total momentum unwind" tied to expectations that Democrats will curb data-center construction.

Bond buyers showed up for the euro deal. Alphabet's dollar-denominated 4.1% bond due 2031 was little changed on Nov. 2 at about 95.4 cents on the dollar, even as the stock was hammered.

What to watch

Alphabet is not alone. Oracle started a $10 billion bond sale alongside a $10 billion share offering on Nov. 2, The Next Web reported. Analysts expect large tech companies to keep tapping debt markets abroad to fund infrastructure.

The open question for Asia is price and timing. Alphabet has not confirmed that Hong Kong or Singapore dollar deals are coming, and the people familiar with the talks say terms are not settled. If the sale goes ahead this month, the spread Alphabet pays will show how much Asian investors want AI-linked debt after the worst stretch the company has had.