2026-08-05
Why Is Google Guaranteeing $43.8B of Other People's Data Center Rent? TPU Operators Borrow at 7.1%, Nvidia's at 9.3%
There's a number in Alphabet's Q2 2026 10-Q: as of June 30, Google had committed to cover up to $43.8 billion in third-party data center lease payments if tenants default. Nine months earlier that figure was $6.5 billion — a sevenfold increase. None of those data centers are Google's. What the guarantee buys is very concrete: with Alphabet standing behind them, operators running Google TPUs borrow at 7.1% while comparable projects in Nvidia's ecosystem pay 9.3% — a structural 2.2-point gap. At the other end of the chain sits Anthropic: run-rate revenue just past $30 billion, up from about $9 billion at the end of 2025, but with no credit rating and no way to borrow at this scale on its own. In between stand Morgan Stanley's Compute SPV, Broadcom as residual-value guarantor, and crypto miners supplying grid power. This piece takes apart how the machine works, why Google would rather keep $43.8B of exposure off its balance sheet, and the path the risk travels back.
