Debt
The World’s Biggest Corporate Borrowers Are Dominated by Tech
Some of the most valuable companies are also the ones with the most debt.
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The cheap-money era that followed the 2008 credit crisis has lured many companies into the debt market. Here’s a list of the 10 biggest nonfinancial corporate borrowers, based on Bloomberg data and recent financial reports.
AT&T (Total debt: $177b)
AT&T Inc.’s mega-acquisitions of DirecTV in 2015 and Time Warner in 2018 were largely responsible for making it the world’s biggest nonfinancial corporate borrower. The Dallas-based telecommunications carrier, which made debt reduction its “top priority” this year, plans to pay down about $20 billion with internally generated cash flow and proceeds from asset sales.