Waymo's $3B Loan Signals The AI Credit Boom

Waymo is in talks to borrow more than $3B.

It would be the first loan in the company's history...

Alphabet's Waymo is in late-stage talks with PIMCO, Blackstone and Sixth Street for a loan of more than $3B, with Goldman Sachs arranging.

Nothing is signed yet.

- Waymo raised $16B of equity this year
- Valuation: $126B
- Still running negative EBITDA
- 4,000+ vehicles, 14 US cities
- 500,000 paid rides a week
- Loan is unrated
- First-ever debt raise for the company
- Expected to price above 500 bps over benchmark

Alphabet Inc. can print investment-grade bonds whenever it wants. Waymo is going to private credit instead - which tells you this is being underwritten as standalone risk, not parent risk.

Uber did the same thing in 2016. A $1.15B leveraged loan while private and losing money, then an IPO.

The difference is scale, and what the money buys.

Equity funded the science.

Debt funds the fleet, the depots and the compute bill.

This is not an isolated deal.

- AI borrowers have raised close to $500B this year
- Up from 1% of US high-grade issuance in 2024
- Hyperscalers are now 15%+ of IG supply
- Meta printed $30B. Amazon: $37B
- Meta's Hyperion SPV: $27B of debt
- Hyperscaler capex this year: $725B

A stack is forming.

Bonds for the strongest names. Project finance for the steel and power. Private credit for everything that is unrated, unfinished or unprofitable.

Waymo sits in that third bucket.
So will most of what gets built next.

Is private credit now the default lender to AI?