Five US tech giants' hidden debts soar to $1.65tn on opaque AI funding Data center leases, GPU supply contracts raise liabilities at Meta, Oracle, Nikkei study shows KOHEI YAMADA July 21, 2026 PALO ALTO, California -- Hidden debt at U.S. tech giants swelled eightfold in four years to an estimated $1.65 trillion as artificial intelligence investments ballooned, a Nikkei study shows, exceeding actual debt and making it tougher for investors to assess risk. Nikkei examined recent financial statements and other materials from Google owner Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Oracle. The four companies aside from Oracle are scheduled to announce their second quarter earnings from Wednesday, meaning the figures may increase further. The five companies' hidden debt, which does not appear on balance sheets, totaled $1.65 trillion in the most recent quarter, exceeding the roughly $1.35 trillion in debt reflected on their balance sheets. The data includes some estimates. Meta's off-balance-sheet debt is particularly high at about $420 billion, nearly triple its recorded debt. These companies are rapidly bolstering their data centers and other computing resources to power AI development, and are entering into long-term purchase agreements for graphics processing units (GPUs) and servers. Constructing data centers requires investment in the billions or even tens of billions of dollars. Tech companies often enter into lease agreements with data center operators to keep initial costs down. Some of these are arrangements where the operator provides the land, buildings and power facilities, which the tech company leases over the long term. Under accounting rules, GPUs and servers under long-term contracts that have not yet been delivered -- as well as lease agreements for data centers that are not yet operational -- are treated as off-balance-sheet items. Oracle is advancing a large-scale data center project called Stargate with OpenAI, using lease agreements with external operators. Its hidden debt reached $273.3 billion as of the end of May, a more-than 30-fold increase in four years. Companies disclose such future debt not in their balance sheets, but in annotations to their quarterly financial statements. This is a legitimate practice under accounting rules, but may make it difficult for retail investors to recognize risks. Some in the market have begun to show concern. Morgan Stanley analyzed the matter in detail in an investor report, while rating agency Moody's also pointed out in a February report that commitments for leases yet to begin were ballooning. [...] https://archive.ph/lOlv5