Kohei Yamada wrote an article for Nikkei Asia titled Five US tech giants’ hidden debts soar to $1.65tn on opaque AI funding (21 July 2026).
“Hidden debt at U.S. tech giants swelled eightfold in roughly four years to an estimated $1.65 trillion as artificial intelligence investments ballooned., a Nikkei study shows, exceeding actual [reported] debt and making it tougher for investors to assess risk.”
The article is behind a paywall. However, Hedgie posted further details on Twitter.
“A Nikkei investigation found that Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle have $1.65 trillion in debt that doesn’t appear on their balance sheets, more than the $1.35 trillion they officially report. These are GPU contracts, data center leases, and joint ventures that don’t count as debt under accounting rules until the facilities go live. Meta’s hidden debt is $420 billion, triple its reported debt. Oracle’s grew 30-fold in four years. All five declined to comment.”
“These companies owe more off their balance sheets than on them, and the accounting rules let them keep it that way until the data centers go live. That’s legal, but it means investors looking at quarterly earnings this week are seeing less than half the picture.”
“But when those data centers start operating, the leases hit the books all at once.”
| Hidden debt (off balance sheet) | |
| Meta | ~$420B |
| Oracle | ~$273B |
| Amazon | ~$350B |
| Microsoft | ~$350B |
| Alphabet | ~$250B |
| TOTAL | $1.65 Trillion |
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