Microsoft is borrowing at least $25 billion, Bloomberg reported. Its CFO says cloud demand still exceeds what Microsoft can supply.
Microsoft is looking to raise at least $25 billion in a US bond sale, its first high-grade debt offering in the country since 2017, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The final size depends on investor demand.
The sale came a day after Microsoft disclosed $45.2 billion of spending on data centres and equipment, including leases, in the three months to September. Free cash flow fell 27% to $18.6 billion in the same quarter.
Azure cloud revenue rose 48% to $33.2 billion, and chief financial officer Amy Hood told analysts: "We still have demand that exceeds supply."
Microsoft's last big US bond sale, in January 2017, raised $17 billion, partly to pay for LinkedIn. It is one of only two US companies with a AAA credit rating, alongside Johnson & Johnson. Alphabet raised $25 billion through a similar bond sale in August.
At its minimum, the bond would cover a little over half of one quarter's data centre bill. For Azure customers, the constraint Microsoft's CFO names is capacity.
Sources
Our file on Microsoft
- 30 Oct
Microsoft's GitHub said AI agents wrote first drafts of over 40% of code change requests in September. In March it was 17%.
- 30 Oct
OpenAI's Codex and Microsoft's VS Code are still unpatched, researchers say. They found security flaws in five AI coding tools.
- 29 Oct
Microsoft says Canada Goose cut its month-end close to five days from eight. It had used old software and Excel.
- 29 Oct
Microsoft said Copilot users grew 50% quarter on quarter. CIOs still owe finance a justification for each paid seat.
- 27 Oct
Warwickshire approved a Microsoft renewal worth about £9m in principle. It still has to find the extra £375,000 a year.
Every story here is open to read. The ERP LEADERS brief goes one step further.
The day in enterprise software, in one email: the stories that matter, the failures with their figures, one case taken apart. Read a sample or sign up for the brief.
Welcome back. · Issue 01
