AI Arms Race: Big Tech Turns to Debt

AI Arms Race: Big Tech Turns to Debt

Amazon [AMZN] is targeting $12bn in its first US bond sale in three years to fund artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. According to the Financial Times, it plans to sell roughly six investment-grade bonds. It is only the latest big tech firm to turn to debt issuance to fund their efforts in the AI arms race: in recent months Alphabet [GOOGL] sold $25bn, Meta [META] $30bn and Oracle [ORCL] $18bn.

The Curse of OpenAI?

“It’s too soon to be talking about the Curse of OpenAI,” writes Bryce Elder in an in-depth analysis for the Financial Times, “but we’re going to anyway.” Since Oracle announced its $300bn deal with OpenAI on September 10, the stock has lost around $315bn in market value, while broader indices are largely flat. OpenAI deals once boosted share prices, but similar announcements for Broadcom [AVGO] and Amazon haven’t moved markets. 

Don’t Trust AI: Google Boss

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, warned users not to “blindly trust” AI tools, telling the BBC that models are “prone to errors” and should be used alongside other information sources. He emphasized the value of a diverse information ecosystem, noting that tools like Google Search remain essential for accuracy. Pichai underlined that AI is best for creative tasks, but users must understand its limitations.

Can Veeva Fend Off Competition from Salesforce?

Veeva Systems [VEEV] is solidifying its dominance in life sciences CRM with strong revenue growth and major pharma clients committing to its Vault CRM platform. Despite Salesforce’s [CRM] push into the sector, Veeva beat expectations in Q2 2025. OPTO details how, while VEEV stock appears overvalued relative to peers, analysts remain bullish given its higher growth trajectory and successful customer migration strategy.

Bitcoin Blues

The cryptocurrency market has lost over $1trn in six weeks amid concerns over high tech valuations and US interest rates. Data from CoinGecko shows the total value of 18,000+ coins has dropped 25% since October 6, with bitcoin [BTC] down around 28% to $91,100, near its April lows. “Despite all the institutional adoption and positive regulatory momentum, crypto market gains have now been wiped out on the year,” Brett Knoblauch, a crypto analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, told the Financial Times.

Milestone for Chinese EV Challenger

Xiaomi [XIACF] posted its first quarterly profit from electric vehicles (EV), marking a key milestone in its EV push. The division earned RMB700m in Q3, reversing a RMB300m loss from Q2 and more than doubling the company’s net income. Xiaomi plans to scale production to challenge Tesla [TSLA] and BYD [BYDDF] in China, targeting a spot among the world’s top five automakers and a European launch in 2027.

How Natural Gas is Powering the AI Boom

On November 12, Chevron [CVX] announced it is to build a natural gas-fueled power station in West Texas to provide energy to an AI data center, for an as-yet-unnamed “premier customer”. Set to come online in 2027, the installation will be able to generate 2.5GW of off-grid power, equivalent to what would be needed to power some 2 million homes. OPTO details why natural gas is having an AI moment, and which companies are benefiting from data center power demand.