Robin Wigglesworth on Hyperscalers' 1.5 Trillion of Off-Balance Sheet Liabilities, Private Credit, and His Book "A Fabulous Debt"

Podcast: Monetary Matters with Jack Farley · Jack Farley

Opublikowano: 2026-08-16

Robin Wigglesworth — editor of FT Alphaville and author of A Fabulous Debt: The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World — joins Jack Farley to unpack the hidden debt fueling the AI buildout. Wigglesworth reveals that off-balance-sheet leverage from hyperscalers like Meta, Google, and Microsoft jumped from roughly $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in a single quarter, hidden in lease structures and purchase commitments that never show up as debt — including Google's own $800 billion in disclosed obligations. He argues the NVIDIA-Blackstone-KKR financing wave marks a shift from an equity-driven boom to a debt cycle, a distinction that makes today's AI buildo...