An unprecedented number of U.S. companies sold bonds in Europe on Wednesday, drawn by liquidity and attractive terms as their home market strains under a deluge of AI-related debt.
Amazon.com Inc. wrapped up the sale of its first sterling bond while Uber Technologies Inc. completed its euro market debut. They were joined by four others. It’s the first time Europe has seen such a large number of U.S. issuers in a single day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
U.S. corporates, including banks, are looking for alternative funding sources as the world’s largest bond market feels the strain of the immense borrowing by firms involved in the artificial intelligence race. A flood of debt from hyperscalers has crowded out other issuers and been blamed for helping push up U.S. Treasury yields.
Even before Wednesday’s deals, European bond markets had seen €149 billion ($173 billion) of debt from U.S. domiciled corporates this year, already second only to 2025’s record annual total, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“For companies, it makes sense to try to find funding wherever they can,” said Juan Valencia, a credit strategist at Societe Generale. U.S. companies are becoming active in “any market that provides good liquidity and the euro market is the best alternative to U.S. dollars,” he said.
The cost of servicing debt in euros is much cheaper for a high-grade borrower than paying interest on U.S. dollar-denominated debt, which is a crucial factor for multinational firms with earnings in the common currency.
Still, raising money in euros and then swapping it into U.S. dollars using currency forwards has cost roughly the same as borrowing dollars outright in recent weeks, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.
Europe offers another advantage for U.S. firms. Valuations have been relatively appealing because most of the hyperscaler issuance to date has been in the U.S. Investors have warned, however, that the advantage could fade if Europe absorbs much more debt.
Borrowing in sterling doesn’t offer the competitive rates of the euro market, but the UK is still attracting newcomers. Amazon raised £4.25 billion ($5.8 billion) in its debut issue, making it one of the market’s biggest borrowers overnight, as was the case with fellow hyperscaler Alphabet Inc earlier this year.
Amazon, which is expected to spend $220 billion this year, completed its dollar funding needs for 2026 with a $25 billion offering last month. Any other debt sales in the currency would be opportunistic.
“The technical pressures in the U.S. dollar bond market have been painful,” CreditSights analysts including Jordan Chalfin wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. “Large U.S. dollar jumbo deals typically come with large concessions that push out the curve. As a result, the hyperscalers have been diversifying their funding sources,” they wrote.
To be sure, the share of U.S. companies in the euro high-grade market is less than a percentage point higher than at the start of 2025, as European firms have also taken advantage of strong demand for corporate bonds.
Still, debt issuance by U.S. firms abroad, especially from hyperscalers, is set to continue as projections for capital spending in the AI sector are revised higher. This, and attempts to avoid the worst of politics-induced volatility, are set to keep investors busy.
“Continued issuance related to the AI-buildout as well as frontloading ahead of the French elections should have a genuine net impact,” said Marco Stoeckle, head of credit strategy at Commerzbank.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.