Apple raised US$7.5 billion in debt, more than four times the size of the subscription amount issued and cost less than Microsoft

Major technology companies have recently issued bonds intensively to raise AI funds. Apple (Apple ) also took advantage of the situation to issue US$7.5 billion in investment-grade corporate bonds. Despite the general decline in financial markets, thesebond Still attracting buyers, the subscription amount once reached US$31 billion, more than four times the issue size.

Apple will use the proceeds from the bond issuance for general corporate expenses, including buying back its own stock, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

While most tech giants are spending heavily to build AI infrastructure, Apple has largely stayed out of the fight and focused on developing products that appeal to consumers, such as its new foldable phone the iPhone Duo.

Apple is selling seven types of bonds this time, of which the batch coming in 2036 has the longest maturity period. The issuance spread has become 25 basis points lower than the original, and the yield is only 55 basis points higher than that of US Treasury bonds.

In comparison,Microsoft The spreads for recently issued bonds of similar maturity are 65 basis points, and for Meta and Oracle are 160 and 310 basis points, respectively. There is growing skepticism in the market about whether large AI expenditures can be recouped, and investors are demanding higher yields from these companies before buying.

Bloomberg industry research analysts believe that Apple’s return to the bond market is taking advantage of the favorable opportunity for bond issuance, and the funds raised can be used to buy back shares and pay dividends. He pointed out that compared to large cloud peers that have to invest large sums of money to build AI infrastructure, Apple still prefers to use the funds to return to shareholders.

S&P gives Apple an AA+ credit rating. Apple last issued debt in May 2025, raising $4.5 billion. People familiar with the matter said that this time it was controlled by Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. Apple and some of the banks declined to comment, while others did not respond.

The S&P 500 index fell 4.4% on Thursday, its biggest one-day decline since April 2025, and Apple’s share price fell 1.7%. At the same time, the cost of default protection for investment-grade bonds increased by 5.9%.