In partnership with
It’s Thursday!
Hello, Curse and Coffee friends,
Today, we look at the great tech debt.
Hit reply and let us know what you think (we read all of your kind words).
Coffee at the ready…
The Big Sip
The take: Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Oracle are carrying $662 billion in data centre obligations that don't appear on their balance sheets. And Moody's just decided it's done pretending that's fine.
What happened: Moody's Ratings published a report this week, finding that the top five US hyperscalers have accumulated $969 billion in total future data centre lease commitments, of which $662 billion sits entirely off-balance-sheet because the leases haven't technically started yet.
Why it matters: That $662 billion equals 113% of these companies' combined adjusted debt — invisible to anyone who doesn't read footnotes for a living.
What to watch: The first Moody's rating action on any of the five companies that explicitly cites these leases as a debt factor (that's the moment this moves from warning to consequence).
All five companies declined to comment or did not respond when asked about the Moody's findings.
Sponsor Break
Before we slurp into today’s brew…
Here are some wordies from today’s sponsor.
Investor-ready updates, by voice
High-stakes communications need precision. Wispr Flow turns speech into polished, publishable writing you can paste into investor updates, earnings notes, board recaps, and executive summaries. Speak constraints, numbers, and context and Flow will remove filler, fix punctuation, format lists, and preserve tone so your messages are clear and confident. Use saved templates for recurring financial formats and create consistent reports with less editing. Works across Mac, Windows, and iPhone. Try Wispr Flow for finance.