Microsoft Goes Jumbo: $25 Billion Bond Sale in the Works

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is heading back to the U.S. investment-grade bond market for the first time since 2017. 

The company is looking to raise at least $25 billion through as many as 10 tranches, with maturities stretching from two to 40 years, Bloomberg first reported Thursday.  

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The final size remains open and could move with demand. Early price talk on the longest-dated piece, a note due in 2066, sits as much as 1.35 percentage points above Treasuries, according to Reuters. 

Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and UBS Group are managing the sale, with proceeds slated for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures.

Nine years is a long gap between debt raises. Microsoft’s last high-grade deal raised $17 billion in 2017. Moody’s Ratings and S&P Global Ratings both rate the company AAA, a grade held by only one other publicly traded U.S. company, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ).

Spending Outpaces the Cash Pile

The return to debt markets follows a quarter of heavy investment. Microsoft booked $45.2 billion in capital expenditures and finance leases in the September quarter, roughly 30% above a year earlier, while Azure revenue climbed 48% to $33.2 billion. 

CFO Amy Hood told analysts the company is aiming for more than $50 billion in fiscal second-quarter spending and $170 billion across calendar 2027, citing capacity constraints. 

Big Tech’s Borrowing Binge

Microsoft is arriving late to an already crowded debt party. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) went to market on Aug. 6 seeking as much as $25 billion in up to 10 parts, with maturities of two to 40 years, a structure nearly identical to Microsoft’s. 

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet, Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) combined sold about $194 billion of bonds in 2026 through July 7, a 79% jump from roughly $108 billion in 2025, according to a Reuters analysis. 

Oracle has leaned on outside capital harder than most. The company said in February it would raise up to $50 billion in 2026 through stock and debt sales to expand its cloud infrastructure business. 

Analysts at Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan have projected the tech sector could issue as much as $1.5 trillion in new debt over the next few years to fund AI and data center projects, Axios reported. 

CoreWeave Borrows on Different Terms

Further down the credit spectrum sits CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV). The AI cloud provider launched a $3 billion convertible debt offering in September, with initial buyers able to purchase up to $500 million more. 

CoreWeave has described its financing moves as part of an effort to reach an investment-grade credit profile. Microsoft already sits at the very top of the scale. The distance between the two borrowers shows how sharply the cost of funding the AI boom varies depending on who is asking. 

Bond Buyers Grow Selective

Credit investors have grown choosy. Worries about AI-related debt have eased lately after a volatile stretch, CNBC reported Tuesday. 

Meta’s plan for a $95 billion stock offering helped bring down its credit-default swap spreads, which had risen after the company posted negative free cash flow in the third quarter. 

Richard Cheng, who heads Nuveen’s investment-grade corporate sector team, said investors had expected a large Meta bond deal, and the absence of one helped tighten AI-related spreads. Still, CDS spreads remain wider than a year ago, reflecting a surge in issuance and negative free cash flow across parts of the AI space.

Microsoft arrives with an edge few peers can match — its AAA rating should draw a deep order book. Even so, demand for the 40-year note will offer a clear read on how much extra yield bond buyers now want to finance the AI buildout. Even from a AAA borrower.

MSFT Stock Price Activity: Microsoft stock was up 1.65% at $539.76 during premarket trading Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro market data.

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