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Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Oracle Shadow Debt Hits $1.65T

Source: Nikkei Asia
Time: 6:21 AM
Weight: 94/100High importance
How is it calculated?
A 0–100 editorial signal score. Higher scores carry more weight on the timeline.

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What happened?

A study by Nikkei reveals that the combined off-balance-sheet debt of five major U.S.

Why it matters

technology giants—Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle—has reached an estimated $1.65 trillion.

Original Source

Detailed explanation

This "shadow debt" has grown eightfold over the past four years and now exceeds the companies' officially reported debt.

The surge is primarily attributed to the massive investments required to build and maintain artificial intelligence infrastructure.

These hidden liabilities largely consist of long-term leases for data centers and extensive supply contracts for specialized hardware, such as GPUs.

Because these obligations are not always reflected on primary balance sheets, they create an opaque financial landscape that complicates risk assessment.

Analysts suggest that this lack of transparency makes it increasingly difficult for investors to gauge the long-term financial health and potential exposure of these companies as they continue to scale their AI capabilities.

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