Alphabet Inc. opened two more currencies to fund its AI buildout, and Asian investors put in more than twice what the Google parent was looking for.
The company’s first bond sales in Hong Kong and Singapore dollars drew combined orders of more than $7 billion on Thursday in Asia, including bids from the banks arranging the deals, according to updated deal data shared with investors. Alphabet had targeted about $3 billion and was weighing minimum sizes of HK$8 billion for the Hong Kong dollar notes and S$1.5 billion for the Singapore dollar notes.
Tighter at every maturity
Orders for the three-part Hong Kong dollar offering passed HK$32.5 billion, about $4.1 billion, including HK$13.23 billion from the lead managers. The four-part Singapore dollar sale drew more than S$4 billion, about $3.1 billion, including S$965 million from the lead managers. That let Alphabet tighten final guidance by about a quarter point on every tranche: to 4.35% for Hong Kong dollar notes due 2028, 4.70% for 2031 and 5.20% for 2036, and to 2.50% for Singapore dollar notes due 2028, 3.00% for 2031, 3.40% for 2036 and 3.80% for 2056.
HSBC and JPMorgan are global coordinators. Bank of China (Hong Kong), ICBC and Standard Chartered are arranging the Hong Kong dollar notes, and DBS, OCBC and United Overseas Bank the Singapore dollar notes. The bonds are expected to be rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA+ by S&P and to settle on Nov. 19.
A global borrowing map
The deals extend a borrowing push that has taken Alphabet into market after market as it spends heavily on data centers and chips. It raised 6 billion euros last week, after selling $25 billion of U.S. dollar bonds and 5.5 billion Australian dollars of notes in August. Small local markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore can’t absorb a jumbo deal, but they give a top-rated borrower new buyers and a cheaper cost in some maturities, and the depth of this week’s books suggests room to come back.
The appetite stands out after a recent sell-off in technology shares made investors pickier. Other big spenders on AI have followed the same playbook, including Meta’s debut euro bond earlier this month.
