Big Tech Revives Enron-Era AI Financing to Mask Debt in $3 Trillion Buildout
Updated
Updated · Bloomberg Tax · Jul 22
Big Tech Revives Enron-Era AI Financing to Mask Debt in $3 Trillion Buildout
3 articles · Updated · Bloomberg Tax · Jul 22
Summary
$3 trillion in planned AI infrastructure spending is pushing major tech companies to use off-balance-sheet vehicles that can keep billions in data-center, chip and power debt out of parent-company accounts.
Meta’s Louisiana Hyperion project shows the structure: a separate entity took on $27 billion of debt, while Meta disclosed up to $46 billion of exposure and has said the campus could eventually cost as much as $250 billion.
Alphabet keeps some data-center lease and credit-backstop arrangements off balance sheet, Oracle has $260 billion of future lease commitments and Nvidia reported $119 billion of purchase obligations that generally are not booked until goods or services arrive.
The appeal is financial optics: keeping interest costs and some obligations outside reported debt can lift leverage and EBITDA metrics, even though ratings firms and investors still factor those commitments into credit and cash-flow analysis.
Regulators and analysts say the practice is legal but judgment-heavy, with SEC staff watching disclosures closely and critics arguing investors must dig through footnotes to see risks that financial statements alone can miss.