Alphabet lands mega Australian bond issuance as demand tops $18b - AFR

Markets Debt Markets Bonds Print article Cecile Lefort Markets reporter Aug 19, 2026 – 6.00pm Alphabet, the Silicon Valley giant behind Google and Gemini, has stormed the bond market with a $5.5 billion issuance, easily the largest local corporate debt raising, as part of a cash grab to fund its attempt to compete with artificial intelligence heavyweights such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The issuance, known as a Kangaroo bond, is the first time Alphabet has used the local market and comes amid intense interest from investors for exposure to AI and so-called hyperscalers, the name given to big digital infrastructure companies such as Amazon and Meta, which are spending a lot of money to expand their cloud computing and data centre capacities. Loading... Save Log in or Subscribe to save article Share Copy link Copied Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Copy link Copied Share via... Gift this article Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Login License article Read More Bonds Interest rates Investing Sharemarket AI Fetching latest articles