Tech giants guarantee 260 billion euros in AI debt

24.09.2026

4 min read

Meta, Nvidia, Broadcom and Alphabet use their creditworthiness to cut the cost of building AI data centers. The debt sits in special purpose vehicles. If a guarantee is triggered, the companies pay the shortfall against the guaranteed minimum value.

Key takeaways

The Financial Times puts residual value guarantees at around 260 billion euros over twelve months. The amounts barely appear on the companies’ balance sheets.
Meta arranged around 23 billion euros in borrowing for Hyperion in Louisiana. Its own guarantee was around 24 billion euros.
Nvidia guarantees around 91 billion euros for the OpenAI campus in Ohio. The facility will run exclusively on Nvidia hardware for twenty years.
Alphabet reports credit derivatives with a notional value of around 38 billion euros. The liability’s fair value is around 700 million euros.

RelatedNvidia holds the lease: 30 billion in compute for Anthropic / GPU boom vs. green IT: where AI capex faces pressure

A residual value guarantee promises a minimum value for chips or data centers. If the sale or re-letting price falls below it, the guarantor pays the difference.

Meta lets Blue Owl borrow and guarantees the residual value

The Financial Times reported on 22 September 2026 that companies had provided up to around 260 billion euros in residual value guarantees over twelve months. The companies lend their creditworthiness. A special purpose vehicle raises the money in the market.

Meta provided a residual value guarantee of around 24 billion euros for the Hyperion data center with Blue Owl in Louisiana. The structure helped raise around 23 billion euros in debt.

The spread stayed below 150 basis points over Meta’s own bond curve, narrower than for a loan to the special purpose vehicle without a guarantee. In July, the company used the same model for a data center with one gigawatt of computing capacity in El Paso.

For lenders, the promise reduces the risk that hardware or buildings will later be worth less than the loan. For Meta, the balance sheet impact remains small as long as the value stays above the guaranteed minimum.

up to around 260 billion euros

This is how the Financial Times quantifies tech companies’ residual value guarantees over twelve months.

Financial Times, 22 September 2026

Broadcom sells a gigawatt of chips to a shell company

In June, Broadcom took on a commitment of around 25 billion euros to sell chips providing around one gigawatt of computing capacity to a special purpose vehicle. That vehicle leases the chips to Anthropic. According to the Financial Times, Broadcom’s quarterly results showed little impact on its own balance sheet.

The chip supplier told investors that the major AI labs’ path to profitability and the hardware’s lasting value made the guarantees unlikely to be triggered. Whether that assumption holds will depend on chip prices in a few years.

Nvidia ties Ohio to twenty years of its hardware

Nvidia provided around 91 billion euros in guarantees to SB Energy for the OpenAI campus in Ohio. The facility will run exclusively on Nvidia hardware for twenty years. According to the Financial Times, a balance sheet liability arises only when the OpenAI leases begin in 2028.

The buyer of computing capacity also buys into lock-in to one manufacturer. The guarantee makes borrowing cheaper for the campus. The twenty-year exclusivity also extends the period during which switching hardware will be expensive.

“There has been a significant increase in off-balance-sheet commitments over the past year. This makes their credit profiles considerably more complex.”

Doug Colandrea, Senior Director, KBRA, Financial Times 22 September 2026

Alphabet reports 38 billion in notional value and 700 million in fair value

Alphabet provides the clearest figure yet from a quarterly report. Its quarterly report (10-Q) as of 30 June 2026 lists credit derivatives with a notional value of around 38 billion euros. At the end of 2025, the figure was around 15 billion euros.

The liability’s fair value is around 700 million euros. That is the amount Alphabet currently recognizes as a liability.

The notes to the accounts (Note 3) describe the contracts as backstops for payments related to data centers. Their remaining terms extend up to 15 years. The contracts are accounted for as credit derivatives. In a default, Alphabet can use the underlying leases itself or sublet the facilities.

The credit derivatives’ notional value is the maximum exposure if the derivative counterparties default. The gap between notional value and fair value is central to the structure.

Company	Approximate amount	Purpose
Meta	24 billion euros in guarantees	Hyperion with Blue Owl, Louisiana
Broadcom	25 billion euros in commitments	Chips for 1 GW of computing capacity sold to a special purpose vehicle for Anthropic
Nvidia	91 billion euros in guarantees	OpenAI campus in Ohio, 20 years of exclusivity
Alphabet	38 billion euros in notional value	Credit derivatives in the 10-Q as of 30 June 2026

Original figures from the filings and the Financial Times, converted at the European Central Bank reference rate of 15 September 2026 (1.1539).

S&P assesses the gap but does not always add it to debt

S&P analyst Pierre Georges puts the largest observed gap between stressed value and debt at around 25 percent. For Meta, S&P concluded that Hyperion’s value exceeded its debt even after a steep haircut. No debt adjustment was made.

Frequently asked questions

How does a residual value guarantee work for AI data centers?

The guarantor promises a minimum value for chips or buildings. If the subsequent sale or re-letting price falls below it, the guarantor pays the difference. The debt itself sits in a special purpose vehicle.

Why do these amounts barely appear on the companies’ balance sheets?

The special purpose vehicle raises the money. The company only lends its creditworthiness. Alphabet recognizes a fair value of around 700 million euros for credit derivatives with a notional value of around 38 billion euros.

Do rating agencies count the guarantees as debt?

S&P adds the gap between the guaranteed value and its own stressed value to debt. Pierre Georges puts the largest observed gap at around 25 percent. Meta required no adjustment because the stressed value exceeded the debt.