Google has promised to pay $44bn of rent on buildings it will never own

Start with the number, because the number moved fast.

Google has agreed to cover as much as $44bn of lease payments on data centres owned by other people, should the tenant default. It disclosed the figure last week. At the end of September the same commitment stood at $6.5bn, The Information reported.

That is close to seven times larger in nine months.

The promise is simple to state and hard to price. Google does not own the building. It does not occupy the building. It has told the lenders that if the company renting the building stops paying, Google will.

Why a search company is underwriting other people’s rent

The answer is chips. Google wants customers for its tensor processing units, the in-house silicon it is pitching as an alternative to Nvidia.

A guarantee from a company with Google’s balance sheet lets a data-centre developer borrow more cheaply. Cheaper...

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