Off-Balance-Sheet Joint Ventures and the New AI Infrastructure Financing Model
As the capital expenditures required to build frontier AI infrastructure balloon toward $1 trillion (see Big Tech's AI Capex Surpasses $730 Billion in 2026 on Track for $1 Trillion in 2027 as Capacity Constraints Persist), the world's leading technology companies and cloud providers are turning to highly financialized, off-balance-sheet models, joint ventures, and capital-raising structures to fund their expansions.
Oracle's Debt-Fueled Build-Out and Customer-Prepaid Financing
Oracle Corporation (ORCL) represents the most aggressive example of a debt-fueled AI infrastructure expansion, contrasting with the cash-rich balance sheets of Alphabet and Microsoft.
- $70 Billion Capex Plan: In June 2026, Oracle announced it would invest $70 billion in the coming fiscal year (FY2027) to finance its massive data center build-out, representing a 25% increase over the $55.7 billion spent in the fiscal year ending May 31, 2026.
- $40 Billion Debt and Equity Program: To support this $70 billion build-out, Oracle plans to raise $40 billion in debt and equity over the next 12 months, having already issued $25 billion in debt in February 2026.
- $75 Billion in Prepaid Customer Contracts: To mitigate its rising debt burden and protect its investment-grade credit rating, Oracle has turned to its customers to help finance the hardware installed in its facilities. Oracle revealed that pre-paid and customer-supplied hardware contracts now total $75 billion.
- $638 Billion Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO): Oracle's total bookings for future revenue (RPO) stand at a historic $638 billion, largely driven by massive cloud commitments like its $300 billion, 5-year contract to supply OpenAI with data center capacity.
- Joint Venture Project Financing: Developer Related Digital is closing in on $16 billion of project financing for an Oracle data center in Saline Township, Michigan, which will deliver over 1.2 GW of capacity for OpenAI. This model allows Oracle to expand its capacity via third-party developers without carrying the immediate construction debt directly on its balance sheet.
Alphabet's $40 Billion At-the-Market (ATM) Stock Program
While Alphabet (GOOG) possesses substantial cash reserves, it has also established alternative equity-financing mechanisms to support its massive capital commitments:
- ATM Program Launch: In June 2026, Alphabet launched a $40 billion at-the-market (ATM) equity program alongside a $35 billion underwritten offering, forming an $85 billion capital-raising engine.
- Execution Status: In its Q2 2026 Form 8-K filing, Alphabet revealed that as of June 30, 2026, it had not yet sold any shares under the $40 billion ATM program. This indicates that the program is fully primed and that equity dilution and sales will begin to manifest in Q3 2026 and beyond as the AI build-out intensifies.
These highly financialized structures—ranging from customer-prepaid hardware to multi-billion dollar ATM programs and private-credit project financing—demonstrate that the financial engineering behind the AI build-out is evolving rapidly to sustain vertical capital requirements.