Amazon.com Inc has established a new benchmark for foreign borrowing in Canada by launching the largest Canadian dollar-denominated corporate bond offering in history. The e-commerce giant raised $14 billion through "maple bonds," surpassing the previous record held by Alphabet. These bonds feature various maturities spanning from three to 30 years.

Amazon's $14-billion offering eclipses Alphabet's record

The scale of the Amazon.com Inc issuance represents a significant leap in the maple bond market, which consists of loonie-denominated bonds issued by non-Canadian companies. According to the report, Amazon.com Inc raised $14 billion, comfortably overtaking the $8.6 billion raised by Alphabet in mid-May. To put this in perspective, the Amazon.com Inc deal is nearly double the $7.15 billion raised by Coastal Gaslink in 2024, which remains the largest corporate bond ever issued by a domestic Canadian firm.

The Amazon.com Inc offering was structured in five distinct tranches to attract a variety of investors. The largest portion is a 30-year bond totaling $4.75 billion, while other pieces include a $3.5-billion 10-year bond, a $2.5-billion five-year bond, a $2-billion seven-year bond, and a $1.25-billion three-year bond. This diversified maturity schedule allows Amazon.com Inc to lock in long-term financing while managing immediate liquidity needs.

The 2025 technical shift driving $33.8 billion in 2026 issuance

The sudden influx of American capital into the Canadian market is not accidental. As the report notes, a technical change implemented in early 2025 expanded the pool of available investors for maple bond issuers, specifically opening the door to those managing index-tracking funds. This structural shift has turned the Canadian market into a primary destination for global corporate debt.

The impact of this change is evident in the 2026 totals. with the addition of the Amazon.com Inc deal, the total amount of maple bonds issued in 2026 has climbed to at least $33.8 billion. This figure dwarfs the previous annual record of $19.2 billion set during the deal-making surge of 2021. According to Royal Bank of Canada data, the Alphabet deal had already pushed the 2026 total to $19.8 billion before Amazon.com Inc entered the fray, meaning the market has effectively doubled its record pace in a matter of months.

AI scaling and the hyperscalers' hunger for Canadian capital

The aggressive borrowing by "hyperscalers" like Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet is directly tied to the global arms race in artificial intelligence. These companies are borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide to fund the massive data centers and compute power required to scale AI capabilities. Canada's maple market has become an attractive venue due to favorable interesst rates and currency exchange conditions that make borrowing from Canadian investors more cost-effective than other options.

Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet are not alone in this trend. Other major American institutions have recently tapped the Canadian market to optimize their balance sheets. For instance, Goldman Sachs sold $2.75 billion in maple bonds in February, AT&T executed a $2.25 billion deal in March, and New York Life raised $1.1 billion in late April. this suggests a broader strategic shift where U.S. firms view the Canadian loonie as a stable and efficient vehicle for large-scale corporate debt.

The $28-billion order surge and the 1.1 per cent yield gap

Investor appetite for these instruments remains exceptionally high, as evidenced by the $28 billion in total orders placed for the Amazon.com Inc offering—double the actual amount issued. A key draw for these investors is the yield; for the 30-year portion of the Amazon.com Inc deal, the yield is expected to be 1.1 per cent above government bond yields, providing a tempting premium for long-term holders.

Despite the enthusiasm, some specifics remain opaque. While the report highlights the massive demand,it does not detail the specific hedging strategies Amazon.com Inc is using to manage the currency risk associated with borrowing in Canadian dollars to fund global AI projects. Additionally, it remains unclear whether other hyperscalers, such as Microsoft or Meta, intend to launch similar multi-billion dollar maple offerings to compete with the capital stacks of Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet.