Meta Platforms is lining up a large cross-border bond offering to help pay for its artificial intelligence build-out, a move that comes days after S&P Global Ratings turned negative on the company’s outlook.

Bloomberg News reported on Monday that Meta is seeking at least $20 billion from a potential offering of US dollar and euro bonds, and that the size could grow depending on investor demand. Reuters, which relayed the report, said Bloomberg’s sources stressed that no final decision has been made. Meta, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup did not immediately comment.

According to the reports, the dollar portion could span maturities of five to 30 years. The euro portion would run from about four years to just over 38 years. The split between the two currencies was not reported. Meta has asked Citigroup and Morgan Stanley to hold investor calls on Monday and Tuesday. The Next Web, which also covered the plan, said the dollar bonds could come in five parts and the euro notes in six.

The structure matters because euro debt would give Meta access to a second pool of investors. The Next Web noted that reports in September said Meta was preparing to borrow in Europe’s bond market for the first time this autumn, though it said it could not confirm that this is that deal.

The timing is notable. On the Friday before the reports, S&P moved its outlook on Meta’s AA- rating to negative from stable. The Next Web quoted S&P as saying the company “has fewer ways than its rivals to make money from AI.” Reuters reported that Meta had announced equity offerings of about $97.5 billion a week earlier, including $37.5 billion already priced. Meta also raised $30 billion in bonds last year and $25 billion in April, according to the same report.

The Next Web said Alphabet began a €6 billion euro bond sale on the same day and drew more than €17 billion in orders, and described Meta’s offering as a test of how much investors still want to lend to the AI build-out. It also reported that Meta has lined up about $825 billion in commitments, mostly for AI infrastructure; that figure covers commitments rather than annual capital spending, and the article gave no breakdown.

Reuters converted the euro amounts at $1 = 0.8924 euros.

What is not known: the final size, pricing and split of the sale, whether it will go ahead in the form described, and how a negative outlook will affect the spread investors demand. Details come from unnamed sources and Meta has not confirmed them. A rating outlook is not a downgrade, but it signals that S&P sees a meaningful chance of one over the medium term.

For the wider market, the outcome will indicate how deep appetite for hyperscaler debt remains, as several large technology companies lean on bond markets as well as equity to pay for data centres and chips. This article is for information only and is not investment advice.