Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Amazon and Alphabet have signed roughly $1.09 trillion in data-center lease payments for facilities that have not opened yet, against about $285 billion of lease liabilities actually recognized on their balance sheets. The obligations are disclosed in Q2 2026 filings, they are legally binding, and under lease accounting rules almost none of them count as debt yet.
Read the full story: Big Tech's $1T AI lease bill isn't on the books →
Transcript
Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Amazon and Alphabet have signed about one point zero nine trillion dollars in data center lease payments. Against that, roughly two hundred eighty five billion appears as lease liabilities on their balance sheets. That is a four to one gap, and it is not an error. Under lease accounting, you record nothing until the landlord actually hands you the building. Sign a fifteen year lease today on a data center finishing in twenty twenty eight, and until then it lives in a footnote. That rule was written for office space, where signing and moving in are months apart. It behaves very differently when an entire industry signs a trillion dollars of purpose built capacity at once. Oracle is the one to watch. Two hundred sixty billion in future leases against about thirty eight billion recognized. Roughly seven to one, with a small number of very large AI customers. None of this is hidden. Every number is in a public filing. It is just not on the balance sheet yet.