US companies flock to Europe’s bond markets amid AI debt surge

US companies are flooding European bond markets at a pace never seen before, driven by an insatiable need to fund AI infrastructure that their own balance sheets can no longer fully support. The numbers are staggering. US non-financial firms have sold over €60 billion in euro-denominated bonds in 2026 alone, setting a new record. Morgan Stanley estimates that hyperscalers could issue an additional €50 billion in euros before the year is out. September 9 was the breaking point On September 9, 2026, the highest number of US bond issuers hit European markets on a single day, according to Bloomberg data. Amazon debuted sterling bonds for the first time. Uber made its first appearance in euros. In March, Amazon dropped a €14.5 billion eight-part euro bond deal, the largest euro corporate bond offering ever recorded. Five major hyperscalers, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle, now have roughly €40 billion in outstanding euro-denominated bonds. That figure represents nearly 10% of all new euro non-financial corporate issuance. AI spending is the engine behind the borrowing binge Capital expenditures related to artificial intelligence are estimated between $650 billion and $725 ...