Microsoft $25B Bond Sale Funds AI Data Centers

Microsoft is selling at least $25 billion in bonds, its first US bond sale since 2017, to fund capital spending on AI data centers and cloud capacity. As of 2026-10-30, the edition also covers lease-backed financing for AI data centers, Cohere's Series E, a Samsung TV tracking claim, and a set of autonomous vehicle, EV charging and battery developments.

From our newsroom

Mistral Large 4 goes open-weight

Mistral has released the open weights of Mistral Large 4, a 1-trillion-parameter multimodal model with 52 billion parameters active at a time. Enterprises and governments can run it on their own hardware. Hosted API pricing is $0.70 per million input tokens and $2.10 per million output tokens. Read our full Mistral Large 4 report.

Intel data center AI revenue rises 78%

Intel reported data center and AI revenue of $7.3 billion in the third quarter, up 78%. Its fourth-quarter guidance of $15 billion to $16 billion came in below Wall Street expectations, and the shares fell sharply after hours on October 29, 2026. Intel pointed to PC and memory-cost pressure that could last into 2027. Read our Intel earnings coverage.

ServiceNow shares post record one-day loss

ServiceNow shares fell about 27% in their worst session on record, wiping out roughly $42 billion in market value and leaving the stock at $109.67. Third-quarter revenue reached $4.11 billion, but fourth-quarter guidance landed under consensus. Investors are weighing whether AI agents will erode demand for seat-based enterprise software. Read our ServiceNow selloff report.

Microsoft bond sale funds AI data centers

Microsoft is offering at least $25 billion in bonds across up to 10 tranches, with maturities from two to 40 years. Long-dated notes are priced about 1.35 percentage points above Treasuries, and order books reportedly exceeded $115 billion, more than four times the offering. The proceeds are earmarked for general corporate purposes, including AI and cloud capital expenditure, while CoreWeave and other neocloud bonds have faced distress concerns since October 14. Read our Microsoft bond sale analysis.

Also in the news

AI Business

Blackstone, Blue Owl and Ares lock in hyperscaler rent from AI data centers

Blackstone, Blue Owl and Ares own AI data center buildings and collect rent under long leases with hyperscale tenants, according to a Reuters-described trend reported by The Globe and Mail. Blue Owl's leases usually run 15 to 20 years with yearly rent increases, and Ares pre-leases projects on 12- to 15-year terms. Blackstone reports that 96% of its data center counterparties hold investment-grade ratings. Ares estimates AI-related capital expenditure demand at just over $5 trillion through 2030. The contracts shift renewal risk to owners once each lease expires. The sources do not address the costs these buildings impose on nearby residents or the environment, including turbine noise, gas-fired emissions and cooling water use.

Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts as AI capex trails target

Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, and its fiscal first-quarter 2027 capital spending of $45.2 billion fell below its target of more than $50 billion, according to its SEC filing. Eligible staff are vice presidents and lower-ranked employees on select teams in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. Data center, sales and marketing staff are excluded. Employees must decide in early December, and those who accept leave on December 31. The sources show that headcount and AI spending move in the same direction but do not establish a funding link.

Cohere opens Series E with Government of Canada as investor

Cohere has opened the initial close of its Series E, targeting C$7 billion at a C$35.7 billion valuation, as reported by CBC. The Government of Canada plans to invest up to C$1.6 billion on a commercial basis through the Canada Development Investment Corporation. Germany's Schwarz Group leads the round alongside Bell Ventures, Bullhound Capital, Inovia Capital, NVIDIA and Prosperity7 Ventures. Ottawa's money is staged and tied to job and revenue milestones, and Cohere plans to add more than 1,000 tech positions in Canada by 2030.

QuickBeats Test

Researcher claims Samsung TV records audio and screenshots

A cybersecurity researcher known as log4j claims that a 2025 Samsung TV uses AI components in its Tizen operating system to record audio and capture screenshots for ad tracking, according to Tom's Hardware. The claims were first posted on X on October 21, 2026. They are unverified, and Samsung has neither confirmed nor denied them. Samsung already documents Automatic Content Recognition, which collects viewing history and device identifiers when enabled, so the open question is whether the newly described components go further.

Cars

Aurora keeps 30,000-truck goal for 2030 but moves gross profit target

Aurora Innovation still targets more than 30,000 driverless trucks and revenue above $5 billion by 2030, while positive run-rate gross profit has moved from end-2026 to the first half of 2027, according to its investor release. Aurora expects 200 trucks in operation at the end of 2026, then 1,000 trucks and $200 million in revenue during 2027. Carriers in its Driver-as-a-Service model pay $0.85 or more per mile for the Aurora Driver.

Waymo's 20,000-vehicle plan depends on Mesa line

Semafor reports that Waymo's robotaxi fleet plan targets growth from about 4,000 vehicles to 20,000 by the end of 2027, backed by $5 billion of private-credit debt that Alphabet does not guarantee, as described in its report. Each vehicle is built on Zeekr platforms and needs integration at Magna's facility in Mesa, Arizona, which makes that line the likely limit on pace. A third-party estimate puts the fleet at about 14,000 by end-2027. Waymo has not confirmed the 20,000-vehicle figure in a filing or press release.

Energea commits $20M to EV charging finance

Energea Portfolio 4 USA LP has set aside up to $20 million for lending into EV charging, starting with a $10 million credit line to ChargedEV, a developer of fast-charging sites using Tesla V4 Supercharger hardware, as detailed by EV Infrastructure News. The facility is secured by two operating charging stations in Georgia. Reported terms include a fixed rate, monthly payments and a seven-year repayment period. The interest rate and amount drawn have not been disclosed.

Svolt starts mass production of 100-kWh semi-solid packs

Svolt has begun mass production of its 100-kWh Dragon Armor semi-solid battery packs in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, according to CnEVPost. The 900-volt pack charges at 6C, which the company says adds 500 km of range in 12 minutes. Svolt also claims a cycle life above 3,000 cycles. The company has named no vehicle yet, and these figures have not been independently verified.

NHTSA draft rule would make cyan ADS lamps optional

A draft rule from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would allow cyan ADS marker lamps on driverless vehicles without steering wheels or pedals, while leaving fitment optional for every manufacturer, as described in this report. The draft modernizes Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 and was scheduled for Federal Register publication on October 26, followed by a 30-day comment period. The lamps would stay lit when the automated system is in control and go dark when a person is expected to monitor the vehicle.

GM extends eyes-off driving to trucks and SUVs

General Motors plans to extend eyes-off driving to pickup trucks, crossovers and large SUVs, starting with the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ priced at $130,000, according to Fox Business. The system builds on Super Cruise and runs on a new centralized computing architecture debuting with that model. GM has published no timeline for the wider rollout and no safety data. The OnStar AI Assistant, powered by Google Gemini, is due on the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq.

Sources

Microsoft Buyout Offer Lands as AI Capex Falls Short of Target [Update]

✔Human Verified

Researched and cross-referenced against primary sources by the Bytevyte editorial team. This article was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the Bytevyte editorial team.