TheChek News Flow

Amazon joins Big Tech bond rush with $12bn debt sale

Ecommerce giant’s first US bond in three years comes as it cranks up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure

Amazon is seeking to raise $12bn in its first US bond sale in three years, becoming the latest big tech group to turn to debt markets to fund a spending spree on artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The Seattle-based ecommerce and cloud computing giant launched the bond sale on Monday and is targeting approximately $12bn across about six investment-grade bonds, according to a person close to the deal.

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are managing the sale, according to regulatory filings.

Amazon said: “Like all companies, we regularly evaluate our operating plan and make financing decisions — like entering into a credit agreement or issuing bonds — accordingly. The proceeds from this issuance will be used to support business investments, fund future capital expenditures, and repay upcoming debt maturities.”

Big tech companies are in an expensive arms race to build data centres that can power AI. In recent months, many have pivoted to funding large construction projects with debt rather than spending their cash reserves.

Google parent Alphabet sold $25bn of bonds earlier this month, Meta sold $30bn in the largest corporate bond sale so far this year in October, and Oracle sold $18bn of bonds in September.

US companies have issued more than $200bn worth of corporate bonds this year to fund AI-related infrastructure projects, which analysts have warned could “flood” debt markets and store up new risks for credit investors.

The borrowing spree is expected to push US issuance of corporate bonds to a record $1.8tn next year, according to JPMorgan. Goldman Sachs had previously estimated that the “jumbo” tech bond sales accounted for more than a quarter of all net supply of US corporate debt this year.

Amazon’s cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services is the world’s largest provider of leased computing power. Like its rivals, it has expanded investment on infrastructure amid a boom in demand for AI services. Capital expenditures rose 61 per cent to $34.2bn in the third quarter of 2025, bringing the total it has spent so far this year to $89.9bn.

Those investments have doubled the amount of computing capacity Amazon has access to since 2022 and it is planning to double it again by 2027, according to comments by chief executive Andy Jassy during its most recent earnings call.

It signed a $38bn deal to supply computing power to OpenAI this month, giving the start-up access to hundreds of thousands of its Nvidia chips for seven years.

The issuance of AI bonds has hit prices in recent weeks, as investors anticipate hundreds of billions of debt coming in the next few years.

“The sudden onslaught of supply is weighing a bit on the market. This AI issuance is coming fast and furious . . . These may be trading at tight spreads, but they promise to reshape the entire market,” said Robert Tipp, head of global bonds at PGIM, explaining that the surge in issuance would probably drive yields on longer-dated debt significantly higher.

UK to ban resale of tickets above face value for live events

Aggressive crackdown on touts comes after backlash over cost of watching live music and sport

UK ministers plan to ban the resale of tickets for live events above their original cost, in an aggressive crackdown on touts and resellers who sharply increase the price of admission to concerts and sports events.

In plans to be announced on Wednesday, reselling a ticket above face value will be outlawed, government and industry figures told the Financial Times.

The big profits made by resellers were highlighted last summer when thousands of Oasis fans complained about the cost of buying tickets to see the rock band this year.

Some tickets for Oasis shows at Wembley Stadium in London were listed at more than £4,000 — well above their original value.

New legislation being drawn up by the Labour government will also cap service fees charged by resale platforms to stop price limits being undermined by the addition of hidden costs to a ticket.

Ministers want to make it illegal for people to resell more tickets than they were entitled to buy in the initial sale, in an attempt to end industrial-scale touting, in which bots are used to buy up vast numbers of tickets.

The government declined to comment.

The proposed changes would be a blow to popular secondary ticket platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub. StubHub’s shares dropped more than 14 per cent in New York afternoon trading on Monday.

Such sites, which have become increasingly popular in recent years, have argued that proposals to limit price increases risk creating an illegal black market for tickets.

Some MPs and industry groups have also argued this would lead to fewer consumer protections.

But fans have been left frustrated by intermediaries selling tickets for increasingly high prices. 

The outcry over tickets for the Oasis reunion led ministers to launch a consultation in January into options for a crackdown, initially focused on a cap at 30 per cent above the original face value of a ticket. 

But Wednesday’s announcement will go further, with a total ban on sales “above original cost” for tickets to concerts, sport, comedy and theatre. 

The new rules are expected to shave up to £40 from the average cost of a resale ticket, saving tens of millions of pounds for fans every year.

In a statement last week, artists such as Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Mogwai and Radiohead called on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to cap ticket resale price and tackle “extortionate and pernicious” websites used by touts.

Touts cost gig-goers about £145mn a year in elevated prices, according to Let’s Stamp it Tout, a campaign started by Virgin Media O2, which is also part of the FanFair Alliance, comprising managers and teams for artists including Arctic Monkeys and Ed Sheeran.

It said that one in five tickets ended up on a resale platform.

Analysis by Virgin Media O2 of resale sites this summer found that tickets for acts such as such as Diana Ross, Oasis and Lady Gaga in London were being resold for up to 490 per cent on average above face value.

Its research found that traders selling more than 100 tickets a year accounted for more than 82 per cent of tickets on resale sites for a Billie Eilish concert, highlighting what it called the extent of the work of “industrial-scale” touts.

Nov 17 (Reuters) - French utility EDF and OpCore, a joint venture between telecoms group Iliad and InfraVia Capital Partners, have entered into exclusive negotiations to develop a hyperscale data centre, the companies said on Monday.

The project, which would be located on the site of EDF’s former coal-fired plant at Montereau-Vallee-de-la-Seine, is expected to cost around 4 billion euros ($4.64 billion) and would create one of Europe’s largest computing hubs with several hundred megawatts of capacity.

Europe's old power plant sites are increasingly being repurposed for data centres to meet surging demand for AI computing, leveraging existing grid connections and industrial land to speed up deployment and cut costs.

"This investment shows that France intends to lead the artificial intelligence revolution," French Economy Minister Roland Lescure said in a statement. “We are reaffirming our determination to reindustrialise the country, create jobs ... and make France a major digital power."

A first phase is scheduled to come online in 2027 under France’s fast-track grid connection scheme.

EDF launched a call for interest earlier this year to repurpose industrial land for strategic digital infrastructure.

The Montereau site, shut down in 2004, will be redeveloped with a focus on energy efficiency and environmental standards, the companies said.

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