Business
Alphabet bonds’ lack of guardrails highlights investor confidence
Google parent Alphabet raised $31.51 billion across U.S. dollar, sterling and Swiss franc bond markets in a global bond raise on Monday and Tuesday, as artificial intelligence-driven spending sparks a surge in borrowing at U.S. tech giants.
Alphabet’s bond sale stood out in several ways, including its use of a so-called 100-year “century” bond in the sterling market.
These and other hyperscalers’ recent bond sales have garnered strong reception with Alphabet’s $20 billion U.S. bond sale drawing over $100 billion in demand. But the growing hyperscaler debt pile has raised concerns about their lack of investor protections compared to other bonds.
“What stands out is what’s missing,” said Julia Khandoshko, the CEO of Cyprus-based broker Mind Money. “Once a big name gets covenant-light terms through, others will try the same.”
“Naturally, that creates a second-market problem, where the next buyer has fewer ‘rules’ to rely on, while prices will swing more on rates, mood, and liquidity,” she added.
Investment-grade borrowers with strong credit profiles typically include fewer covenants in debt agreements than their junk-rated counterparts. Yet most include basic investor guardrails, especially a standard change-in-control covenant protecting investors in the event of M&A or another change in ownership. Alphabet’s bonds do not carry these protections, noted Anthony Canales, head of global research at New York-based Covenant Review.
The five major AI hyperscalers – Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle – issued $121 billion in U.S. corporate bonds last year, according to a January report by BofA Securities. Alphabet and Amazon did not respond to requests for comment, while Oracle, Meta and Microsoft declined to comment.
Oracle’s $25 billion note offering on February 2, and Meta’s $30 billion bond offering in October, similarly lacked change-in-control and other basic covenants, Canales noted.
“In most IG covenant packages you would expect to see a change-in-control covenant,” Canales said. “But these are huge companies where the investors don’t believe there’s great risk they’ll need these protections.” Future tech issuers, especially smaller and lower-rated companies, could run into obstacles if they attempt to model their covenants after Alphabet, he added.
New debt issuance in 2026 from the five major hyperscalers could reach more than $300 billion as their spending needs around AI buildout increase, BofA Securities analyst Tom Curcurro wrote in a January 12 report. “This massive AI infrastructure buildout requires so much capex from the hyperscalers that they want to reduce the technical impact on their bonds,” said Jordan Chalfin, senior analyst at the New York-based research firm CreditSights, noting the benefits to issuers from flexible covenant structures.
Trucking and transport stocks had one of their worst days ever Thursday thanks to a firm that until recently was in the karaoke business.
The Florida firm, formerly the Singing Machine Co. RIME 222.22%increase; green up pointing triangle and now known as Algorhythm Holdings, published a news release shortly before stock trading opened touting AI technology capable of increasing trucking efficiencies. Algorhythm, which has a stock market value of less than $3 million, hasn’t landed any software clients in the U.S. yet. But its announcement nonetheless rattled the market.
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Company Participants
Cassie Corneau – Manager of Investor Relations & Strategic Finance
Serge Saxonov – Co-Founder, CEO & Director
Adam Taich – CFO, Treasurer, Principal Financial Officer & Principal Accounting Officer
Conference Call Participants
Tycho Peterson – Jefferies LLC, Research Division
Douglas Schenkel – Wolfe Research, LLC
Puneet Souda – Leerink Partners LLC, Research Division
Daniel Arias – Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division
Kyle Mikson – Canaccord Genuity Corp., Research Division
Daniel Brennan – TD Cowen, Research Division
Patrick Donnelly – Citigroup Inc. Exchange Research
Mason Carrico – Stephens Inc., Research Division
Subhalaxmi Nambi – Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Research Division
Lu Li – UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
Michael Ryskin – BofA Securities, Research Division
Salem Salem – Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division
Casey Woodring – JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division
Matthew Larew – William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division
Presentation
Operator
Thank you for standing by. My name is Karli, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the 10x Genomics Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to turn the call over to Cassie Corneau, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Strategic Finance. Please go ahead.
Cassie Corneau
Manager of Investor Relations & Strategic Finance
Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Earlier today, 10x Genomics released financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2025. If you have not received this news release or would like to be added to the company’s distribution list, please send an e-mail to investors@10xgenomics.com.
An archived webcast of this call will be available on the Investor tab of the company’s website, 10xgenomics.com, for at least 45 days following this call.
Before we begin, I’d like to remind you
Markets Weekly Outlook: Supreme Court Tariff Decision And Key Tests Ahead
Operator
Thank you for participating in the Investor Meeting for 2025 Full Year Results at Japan Tobacco Inc. today, despite your busy schedules. Since it is a scheduled time, let us get started. Before we start the meeting, I’d like to ask you to make sure that your display name on the Zoom is accurate. Thank you for your cooperation.
In today’s meeting, first, our newly appointed JT Group CEO, Takehiko Tsutsui, who assumed the role in January 2026, will introduce the Business Plan 2026. And Eddy Pirard, CEO of JT International, will follow and explain the tobacco business focus on FY 2025 performance. Lastly, Hiromasa Furukawa, Chief Financial Officer of the JT Group will explain JT Group 2025 results and 2026 forecast. Then we move on to the Q&A session, and this meeting is scheduled to end at 8:00 p.m. Japan Standard Time.
Now I would like to introduce the first presenter, Mr. Tsutsui, please begin.
Takehiko Tsutsui
CEO & President & President of Tobacco Business
I am Takehiko Tsutsui, CEO of the JT Group. Thank you very much for attending our conference call today. And I would like to express my appreciation for your continued support
Pinterest PINS -16.83%decrease; red down pointing triangle shares tumbled after the company projected revenue growth slowing in the first quarter amid a pullback from advertisers that weighed on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings.
Shares slid 18.5% to $15.10 in after-hours trading after closing the market session down 2.9% at $18.54.
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