Amazon secures $17.5 billion loan as AI spending surges

Amazon.com secured a $17.5 billion delayed-draw term loan credit facility as it accelerates spending on AI infrastructure, data centers, chips and the power and networking systems needed to support them. The cash is available through the end of September 2026, and each borrowing under the facility carries a three-year repayment period from the draw date.

The financing adds another layer to Amazon’s debt strategy just days after it completed a record C$14 billion Canadian corporate bond sale, the largest corporate bond offering ever in Canada. Citigroup was among the lenders in the new facility, alongside BofA Securities, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and Wells Fargo. Amazon said the loan is for general corporate purposes, but the move lands squarely in the middle of the company’s broader AI capital spending push.

Amazon has already signaled that its 2026 capital expenditures could reach about $200 billion, a scale that has forced even a cash-rich company to lean harder on debt markets. That spending outlook has raised concern that free cash flow could turn negative, even as Amazon remains highly rated and retains strong access to financing. In its latest annual report, Amazon said long-term debt stood at $65.6 billion at the end of 2025, up from $52.6 billion at the end of 2024.

The new loan also follows Amazon’s March 10 bond sale, when the company sought to raise about $37 billion for AI infrastructure buildout. That offering drew about $126 billion in peak demand, a sign that investors are still willing to fund the buildout despite the size of the checks involved. The appetite has helped Amazon and other hyperscalers tap the market on increasingly ambitious terms, but it also underscores how much capital the AI race is consuming.

Fidelity recently said several hundred billion dollars of new debt is expected in 2026 from hyperscalers and other large tech borrowers to finance data-center and related infrastructure. The scale of that forecast captures the shift under way in Big Tech: companies are no longer funding AI expansion mainly from operating cash flow, but increasingly from bonds and bank loans as they race to secure computing capacity, power supply and network links.

For Amazon, the borrowing spree reflects both confidence and risk. Investors continue to back the company because of its cash generation and strong credit profile, yet the growing reliance on debt leaves more pressure on AI demand, cloud growth and future returns to justify the spending now being locked in.