🤖 AI Summary
**Google(Alphabet)が100年満期のポンド債を発行へ**
- Alphabetは、今週初めてのポンド建て「センチュリーボンド」‑ 100年償還の債券を売り出すために銀行と協議中。
- 同時に、先週は150億ドル規模のドル債を販売し、スイスフラン建ての債券も準備中と報じられた。
- 100年債は極めて稀な長期借入手段で、過去に発行したのはオーストリアやアルゼンチンの政府、オックスフォード大学、EDF、ウェルカム・トラスト(2018年)などに限られる。
- テック業界ではIBMが1996年に100年債を発行した例があるだけで、ほとんどが40年以内の期間。
- 大手テック企業とそのサプライヤーは、今年だけで約7,000億ドル規模のAIインフラ投資を見込んでおり、データセンター建設資金を調達するために債券市場への依存が高まっている。
- 本件は、1997年にモトローラが発行した100年債以来、テックセクターでの発行は久々となる。
要するに、AlphabetはAI投資資金調達の一環として、過去に例が少ない100年満期のポンド債を発行し、テック企業の長期資金調達の新たな潮流を示唆している。
Alphabet has lined up banks to sell a rare 100-year bond, stepping up a borrowing spree by Big Tech companies racing to fund their vast investments in AI this year. From a report: The so-called century bond will form part of a debut sterling issuance this week by Google's parent company, according to people familiar with the matter. Alphabet was also selling $15bn of dollar bonds on Monday and lining up a Swiss franc bond sale, the people said.
Century bonds -- long-term borrowing at its most extreme -- are highly unusual, although a flurry were sold during the period of very low interest rates that followed the financial crisis, including by governments such as Austria and Argentina. The University of Oxford, EDF and the Wellcome Trust -- the most recent in 2018 -- are the only issuers to have previously tapped the sterling century market.
Such sales are even rarer in the tech sector, with most of the industry's biggest groups issuing up to 40 years, although IBM sold a 100-year bond back in 1996. Big Tech companies and their suppliers are expected to invest almost $700bn in AI infrastructure this year and are increasingly turning to the debt markets to finance the giant data centre build-out. Michael Burry, writing on Substack: Alphabet looking to issue a 100-year bond. Last time this happened in tech was Motorola in 1997, which was the last year Motorola was considered a big deal.
At the start of 1997, Motorola was a top 25 market cap and top 25 revenue corporation in America. Never again. The Motorola corporate brand in 1997 was ranked #1 in the US, ahead of Microsoft. In 1998, Nokia overtook Motorola in cell phones, and after the iPhone it fell out of the consumer eye. Today Motorola is the 232nd largest market cap with only $11 billion in sales.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.