The increase in debt-funded capital expenditure (capex) by the big “hyperscaler” tech companies is adding to the level of risk in the AI economy, according to Goldman Sachs. Those companies—Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle specifically—have taken on $121 billion in debt, year to date, up from $28 billion on average over the previous five years.
“While the degree of public company leverage remains small, a continued shift toward debt financing would increase the macro risks associated with the AI build-out,” Goldman analyst Ryan Hammond and his team wrote in a note seen by Fortune.
