Nvidia is moving to raise at least $20 billion in debt, the chipmaker's first bond sale since the artificial intelligence boom transformed it into one of the world's most valuable companies. Sources with knowledge of the matter told CNBC the final amount could end up closer to $25 billion, though they asked not to be named because the numbers are not public.
The company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday disclosing the capital raise but did not specify the dollar amount in the filing. Earlier this year, Nvidia had indicated it could raise up to $25 billion through the issuance of unsecured commercial paper notes.
Nvidia currently carries about $7.5 billion in long-term debt and $1 billion in short-term debt. The last time it raised debt was in 2021, when it brought in $5 billion with notes maturing as late as 2031. At that time, Nvidia generated roughly $27 billion in annual revenue. By fiscal 2026, that number had grown to $216 billion. An Nvidia spokesperson said the company intends to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including repayment and refinancing of existing debt.
Nvidia shares rose 3.5% on Monday and are up about 14% so far this year.
The move puts Nvidia alongside a wave of major tech companies raising capital to fund AI-related expansion. Alphabet announced plans earlier this month to raise $85 billion in equity-related offerings after securing more than $55 billion in fresh debt since November. Super Micro announced $7 billion in equity-related financing deals last week to cover hardware component purchases. Amazon raised roughly $54 billion in debt earlier this year in U.S. and European bond markets and announced plans last week to raise about $10 billion more in a Canadian debt sale.
The launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022 was a major catalyst for Nvidia's growth, as AI model companies and cloud computing providers began purchasing large quantities of the company's graphics processing units. Revenue growth accelerated sharply in the years that followed.
In May, Nvidia announced an aggressive capital return program. It raised its dividend from one cent per share to 25 cents and said it planned to repurchase $80 billion in shares. The company generated $49 billion in free cash flow in its most recent quarter, up from $35 billion in the same period a year earlier. On its latest earnings call, Nvidia said it planned to return roughly 50% of free cash flow to shareholders this year.
