Big Tech's Next Wave of Data-Center Obligations Is Sitting in the Footnotes

The biggest buyers of AI infrastructure report their borrowing on the balance sheet. A growing share of what they have promised to pay for data centers sits somewhere else: in footnotes describing leases that are signed but have not yet started.

Those commitments do not count as debt today. Under accounting rules, a lease reaches the balance sheet only when the lessee takes control of the property, which for a data center can be years after the contract is signed. Until then, the obligation appears as a single sentence in the lease note. Read together, those sentences now describe a very large pool of future fixed payments.

Microsoft's annual report for the year ended June 30 says the company "had additional leases, primarily for datacenters, that had not yet commenced of $329.1 billion, with some arrangements subject to certain contractual conditions being met." Those leases begin between fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2033, with terms of one to 20 years. On the balance sheet, Microsoft carried finance-lease liabilities of $66.6 billion and operating-lease liabilities of $21.9 billion at the same date.

Meta Platforms reported lease obligations of about $278.99 billion not yet commenced as of June 30, beginning between the rest of 2026 and 2036, up from $103.77 billion at the end of 2025. Its quarterly report added that in July it signed further data-center leases of about $68 billion, expected to start in 2027 and 2028.

Oracle's quarterly report for the period ended Aug. 31 lists "$288 billion of additional lease commitments, substantially all related to data center arrangements," expected to begin between the second quarter of fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2029, with terms of 15 to 19 years.

Amazon's June quarterly report shows $137.2 billion of undiscounted payments for leases not yet commenced, $93.5 billion of it due after 2030. Alphabet reported $85.2 billion of such leases, starting between 2026 and 2031, with terms of one to 26 years.

Added together, the five figures come to roughly $1.12 trillion. That total is a Rackline calculation across different period ends, and it adds undiscounted future payments, not liabilities, so it is not comparable to reported debt.

Some exposures sit further out still. Meta's quarterly report describes a joint venture in Louisiana in which it holds a 20% stake, with leases starting in 2029 and an aggregate initial lease commitment of about $12.31 billion. Meta has provided residual value guarantees with an aggregate threshold of about $28 billion that decreases over time; it said payments under them "are not probable," so no liability has been recorded. For a separate El Paso joint venture announced in July and subject to closing, Meta said it will provide residual value guarantees with a maximum aggregate exposure of about $13 billion.

Alphabet discloses a different kind of support. It said it has agreed "to backstop certain payment obligations relating to data centers," which it accounts for as credit derivatives. The maximum potential exposure was $43.8 billion at June 30, up from $16.9 billion at the end of 2025, with terms of up to 15 years.

None of this suggests the companies cannot pay. Their cash and marketable securities are large, and most of these leases run alongside contracts with paying customers. The point is that the commitments are fixed while AI demand is not. A data-center lease obligates the tenant for years whether or not the GPUs inside it stay busy.

Accounting choices will also change how the obligations look. Microsoft said in July that, starting in fiscal 2027, it is extending the useful life of its data centers from 15 to 25 years, and that as a result "more of our future datacenter leases will shift from finance leases to operating leases." Finance leases count toward Microsoft's capital spending; operating leases do not.

The markers to watch come quickly. Microsoft reports fiscal first-quarter results on Oct. 28, and the other four companies report in the following weeks. Each new filing will show whether the not-yet-commenced figures keep rising, how much moves onto the balance sheet as buildings are delivered, and whether guarantees and backstops grow alongside them.