Bondholders step back from Oracle’s latest debt moves to support AI spending
The post Bondholders step back from Oracle’s latest debt moves to support AI spending appeared com. The bond market is hammering Oracle this week after it was reported by Cryptopolitan that the company plans to stack another $38 billion onto its already massive debt load to build out more AI infrastructure, a move that stunned traders who were already watching its balance sheet swell past $104 billion. That new borrowing plan hit the market at the exact moment investors were trying to figure out how far the company can push this strategy while spending more cash than it brings in from operations through deals with startups like OpenAI. Bond traders said the impact showed up right away in the numbers. The company’s 2033 bonds with a 4. 9% coupon slipped again this week, lifting yields by more than three basis points over the last two weeks. The 2032 bonds with a 4. 8% coupon also saw yields rise almost two basis points in one week. Those jumps marked the moment when questions about the safety of this plan moved out of private calls and into actual trading. Analysts said the drop followed the CNBC report outlining the company’s plan to take on that additional $38 billion, which landed exactly when investors were trying to measure how deep this AI gamble could go. Traders track new warnings from analysts and investors Lisa Shalett, the chief investment officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, told Reuters that major tech firms are trying to keep stock buybacks alive while pouring money into capex, and they are financing both at once by borrowing. When Lisa said, “most of the major tech companies are trying to sustain their stock buyback programs at the same time that they’re spending on capex currently and to do that, they’re actually borrowing and so they’re using debt,” it matched what traders were seeing inside the bond screens all.