---
type: "Topics"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/42862272.md"
description: "The US's largest tech companies are hiding hundreds of billions in debt.A Nikkei study found that this hidden debt has grown eightfold in just four years, now exceeding the $1.35 trillion in total public debt reported by these companies, reaching $1.65 trillion.Meta alone carries $420 billion in hidden debt, nearly three times what is recorded on its official books.Oracle's hidden debt reached $273 billion, jumping 30-fold over four years, linked to its Stargate data center project with OpenAI.Accounting rules allow companies to completely exclude such projects from their balance sheets when they sign long-term leases for data centers not yet built or order GPUs not yet delivered.This is entirely legal. It's just invisible to those who only look at headline debt figures.This debt is also increasingly funded by external investors, not just the companies themselves. Meta brought in Blue Owl Capital as a partner for a data center project in Louisiana, holding only a 20% stake, while assuring external investors they would be shielded from losses if the project were canceled.The Bank for International Settlements has a name for this exact model: "shadow lending," funding massive expansion without touching the company's own balance sheet.The greater risk lies within the stock market itself. These five companies are among the few top performers currently driving most of the market's gains.If AI demand does not grow as rapidly as expected, this hidden debt will no longer remain hidden; it will transform into real, recorded losses, hitting exactly when the data centers come online, striking those companies whose stock performance has become more broadly dependent on market anomalies."
datetime: "2026-07-22T16:10:16.000Z"
locales:
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/42862272.md)
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/42862272.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/42862272.md)
author: "[辰逸](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/16318663.md)"
generator: "portal-rs"
---

# The US's largest tech companies are hiding hundred…


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