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// THE WIRE1 NOVEMBER 2026 · DEAL · BONDS · AI INFRASTRUCTURE

Meta's US$30 billion and Oracle's US$18 billion bonds: borrowing as a company to build for AI

In September and October 2025 two companies building for AI borrowed US$48 billion between them in their own names, six maturities each, the longest running to 2065. The terms from the prospectuses first; then what the coupons say, and what a lender reads when a company borrows against everything it earns.

BY THE WIRE DESK · BANKING JUDGMENT LAB · UPDATED

// THE SHORT ANSWER

Oracle sold US$18 billion of notes on 24 September 2025 and Meta US$30 billion on 30 October 2025, each in six series maturing from 2030 to 2065. Oracle's coupons ran from 4.450% to 6.100% and Meta's from 4.200% to 5.750%, rising with the term in both. Both prospectuses give the use of proceeds as general corporate purposes, beside rising capital expenditure: Oracle spent US$8.5 billion in one quarter, and Meta expected US$70–72 billion for 2025. Debt raised by a company as a whole is repaid from everything it earns, so a lender reads the whole company's leverage.

// WHAT THE TWO COMPANIES BORROWED

Oracle priced
24 September 2025; issued 26 September 2025
Oracle size
US$18 billion in six series, due 2030, 2032, 2035, 2045, 2055 and 2065, coupons from 4.450% to 6.100%; net proceeds about US$17.9 billion
Oracle's stated use
“General corporate purposes, which may include capital expenditures, repayment of indebtedness, future investments or acquisitions” and dividends or buybacks
Oracle's spending
Capital expenditure of US$8.5 billion in the quarter to 31 August 2025, against US$2.3 billion a year earlier; US$27.4 billion over the four quarters to then
Meta priced
30 October 2025; issued 3 November 2025
Meta size
US$30 billion in six series, due 2030, 2032, 2035, 2045, 2055 and 2065, coupons from 4.200% to 5.750%; net proceeds about US$29.9 billion
Meta's stated use
“General corporate purposes”
Meta's spending
2025 capital expenditure expected at US$70–72 billion, and dollar growth “notably larger in 2026 than 2025” (29 October 2025)
Meta's debt
Long-term debt of US$28.8 billion at 30 September 2025, US$58.8 billion as adjusted for the offering
Order book
About US$125 billion for Meta's notes, which bankers told IFR was the largest ever
Underwriters
Oracle: BofA Securities, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and J.P. Morgan as representatives of the underwriters. Meta: Citigroup and Morgan Stanley as representatives

From each company's final prospectus supplement and the 8-K that followed it, with each company's results release of the same weeks. Every source is listed at the foot of this note.

// 01 — THE TWELVE SERIES, SIDE BY SIDE

Oracle's and Meta's 2025 notes by maturity: amount and coupon
DueOracle, September 2025Meta, October 2025
2030US$3.0bn at 4.450%US$4.0bn at 4.200%
2032US$3.0bn at 4.800%US$4.0bn at 4.600%
2035US$4.0bn at 5.200%US$6.5bn at 4.875%
2045US$2.5bn at 5.875%US$4.5bn at 5.500%
2055US$3.5bn at 5.950%US$6.5bn at 5.625%
2065US$2.0bn at 6.100%US$4.5bn at 5.750%

A bond is a loan cut into pieces and sold to investors: a fixed coupon every six months, the principal back on one date. Each company sold six of them at once, so its repayments fall in six different years rather than one. In both deals the coupon rises with the term — the longer an investor waits for its money, the more it asks to be paid while it waits.

// 02 — WHAT THE MONEY WAS FOR

Both prospectuses say the same thing in different lengths: general corporate purposes. Oracle's list adds that this may include capital expenditure, repaying debt, investments, dividends and buybacks. Money raised by a company as a whole is not tied to one building; it joins everything else the company has.

The spending it sits beside is in the companies' own results. Oracle's capital expenditure was US$8.5 billion in the quarter to August 2025, against US$2.3 billion a year earlier. Meta expected US$70–72 billion for 2025 and said 2026's growth would be notably larger. Alphabet, in the first note of this series, put new equity under the same kind of spending; these two borrowed.

// 03 — WHAT A LENDER READS IN A COMPANY'S OWN BONDS

Debt raised at the company is repaid from everything the company earns, not from the building it pays for. So the lender's question is the whole company's: how much it owes against how much cash it produces, and how that ratio moves while the spending runs ahead of the earnings — the measure the leverage page works through.

Two things follow. Every new bond ranks alongside the bonds already out, so each issue changes the position of every earlier holder. And bonds of this kind rarely carry the tests a bank's loan agreement does: the bondholder's protection is mostly the price it paid and the company it lent to. A bank lending to the same company is reading the same numbers, with covenants of its own.

// 04 — FOR THE THREE READERS

Trying to get into a bank. Know where a deal like this lives: selling bonds is the capital markets side of a bank; lending to the same company is commercial and corporate banking. Expect to be asked why the coupon rises with the term, and to answer in one sentence.

Already on the desk. When a borrower also has public bonds, read their maturities beside your own facility's. A year in which bonds fall due is a year the company must refinance in the market, and your loan is part of the same conversation.

A business that borrows. The bond market is for companies this size; the question your bank asks is the same one. Show what repays the loan, out of what cash, in which years.

// THE SERIES: HOW AI DATA CENTRES ARE PAID FOR

  1. 01 · Equity, at the companyAlphabet's US$90 billion raise
  2. 02 · Debt, at the companyMeta's and Oracle's bonds · THIS NOTE
  3. 03 · Equity and debt, in one projectMeta and Blue Owl's Hyperion
  4. 04 · Loans against the chipsCoreWeave's GPU-backed loans

// SOURCES

Every figure in this note comes from one of these. Each was opened and checked on 1 November 2026.

  1. Oracle Corporation, prospectus supplement for US$18,000,000,000 of notes, 24 September 2025 (filed with the SEC) — The six series, their coupons, maturities and prices, the use of proceeds and the net proceeds.
  2. Oracle Corporation, Form 8-K, 26 September 2025 — The notes issued on 26 September 2025, and the representatives of the underwriters.
  3. Oracle Corporation, fiscal 2026 first-quarter results, 9 September 2025 (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K) — Capital expenditure for the quarter to 31 August 2025 and the four quarters to then.
  4. Meta Platforms, Inc., prospectus supplement for US$30,000,000,000 of senior notes, 30 October 2025 (filed with the SEC on 3 November 2025) — The six series, their coupons, maturities and prices, the use of proceeds, net proceeds and the capitalisation table.
  5. Meta Platforms, Inc., Form 8-K, 3 November 2025 — The offering completed on 3 November 2025, and the representatives of the underwriters.
  6. Meta Platforms, Inc., third-quarter 2025 results, 29 October 2025 (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K) — Capital expenditure for the quarter and the outlook for 2025 and 2026.
  7. IFR, “US Bond: Meta Platforms’ US$30bn six-tranche bond” (IFR Awards 2025) — The order book of about US$125 billion, as bankers described it to IFR.

// HOW A LENDER READS A LARGE BORROWER

Leverage, cash flow, covenants and what sits behind the loan: how a bank reads a company big enough to borrow from the bond market as well.

Read Corporate Lending and Credit Risk →