Amazon can now borrow up to $80B against the AI hardware it buys

Amazon has set up a supplier financing facility to borrow up to $80B against the hardware it buys, usable from 2027 to late 2028. It had a $42.4B free cash outflow in the year to September, and its spending commitments reached $883B.

Amazon has set up a loan facility that lets it borrow up to $80B against the hardware it buys, as it spends heavily on AI data centres, Bloomberg reported. The company disclosed it in its quarterly filing after reporting results on Thursday.

Amazon can draw on the money from the start of 2027 until the third quarter of 2028. Lenders get rights over some of the equipment bought with it, though the filing does not say which.

Until now, Amazon has paid for its build-out with cash from AWS and its retail business, plus record bond sales this year. Rivals have used more creative deals, such as sharing data centre costs with investors or leasing chips bought by others. Alphabet, for one, is raising $80B by selling shares.

“When we see such a really large opportunity in front of us, we’re looking for ways to also responsibly fund that so that we can go as big as possible for our customers,” AWS chief executive Matt Garman told Bloomberg Television.

The spending has drained Amazon’s cash. It had a free cash outflow of $42.4B in the 12 months to September, and its total spending commitments reached $883B, more than double a year earlier.

Its debt had already passed $225B in June, after a $17.5B loan led by Citigroup. Together, the biggest AI spenders now owe about $350B.