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Nvidia raises $25bn in first bond sale since 2021 as AI demand fuels borrowing binge
The chipmaker tapped the US investment-grade bond market on Monday, upsizing the deal from $20bn after orders topped $85bn, in its first debt issuance in five years. Proceeds are mainly for refinancing while locking in low borrowing costs.
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In brief
Nvidia last accessed the investment-grade market in June 2021, raising $5bn. The new deal is at least three times larger.
Initial target of $20bn was increased to $25bn after orders surpassed $85bn, compressing spreads.
Nvidia says the money will be used for general corporate purposes, mainly to repay and refinance outstanding notes.
The sale adds to a torrent of tech debt issuance as combined AI spending is set to exceed $700bn this year.
The seven-tranche deal
Nvidia sold $25bn of notes across seven maturities, ranging from two to 30 years, according to a term sheet seen by multiple outlets. The initial target was at least $20bn, but demand swelled to over $85bn by early afternoon in New York, allowing the deal to be upsized. The 10-year portion was expected to price at 0.5 percentage points above US Treasuries, down from 0.75 points during early discussions, one person familiar said. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley acted as bookrunners.
Raging demand and skipped roadshows
The transaction was executed without the investor meetings typical for investment-grade offerings. “It doesn’t surprise me that they skipped roadshows,” said Andy Li, analyst at CreditSights. “Nvidia has a dominant market position and an excellent balance sheet, there’s no need to convince investors.” Favorable conditions in the bond market, buoyed by a possible US-Iran deal and 13 consecutive months of inflows into US investment-grade funds, further lowered the risk premium to its tightest since early February.
“It doesn’t surprise me that they skipped roadshows. Nvidia has a dominant market position and an excellent balance sheet, there’s no need to convince investors.”
Why the most profitable chipmaker is borrowing
Nvidia holds $13.24bn in cash and equivalents as of April 2026 and generated $96.6bn in free cash flow in the fiscal year ended January, up 59%. Yet the company said proceeds will go to “general corporate purposes, including repayment and refinancing of outstanding notes.” The move is a treasury strategy: refinance maturing debt at slim spreads while keeping cash ready for buybacks and investment, capitalising on the AI halo that makes its paper highly coveted.
“It’s a very high-quality company at the end of the day. And it doesn’t come to the market as often as the other tech names.”
A borrowing binge defined by AI
Nvidia’s sale is the latest in a wave of debt issuance by tech firms feeding the AI build-out. Big Tech’s combined spending is set to top $700bn this year, up from about $400bn in 2025. Meta filed for a $30bn bond offering in October, Alphabet sold yen-denominated bonds for the first time last month, and SpaceX’s record $75bn IPO looms. Yet most of that borrowing has come from Nvidia’s customers, the hyperscalers and cloud firms buying its chips. Now the supplier is borrowing too, primarily to refinance rather than to fund expansion.
Mounting pressure on alternative financing
Signs of market fatigue have prompted some tech groups to seek other routes. Anthropic sealed a $35bn private credit deal backed by Broadcom, and Alphabet raised $85bn in equity for the first time in over two decades earlier this month. Nvidia’s offering, more than triple its $5bn 2021 sale, will push its total debt outstanding to roughly $30bn from $8.5bn.
- 2021
- 5 $bn
- 2026
- 25 $bn
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Sources and context
- HandelsblattChiphersteller: Nvidia gibt Anleihen im Volumen von 25 Milliarden Dollar aus
- Ars TechnicaChipmaker Nvidia seeks to raise over $25B in first bond deal since 2021
- ReutersNvidia to raise $20 billion, source says, in first corporate bond issuance in five years
- The Next WebNvidia's first bond sale since 2021 seeks $20bn+
- Andy Li
- Analyst at CreditSights who commented on Nvidia’s skipped roadshows
- Lauren Wagandt
- Portfolio manager at T Rowe Price who called Nvidia a high-quality issuer
- Places
- United States, New York City
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