SEOUL (Reuters) - OpenAI, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK Hynix (000660.KS) are preparing to start construction of data centres in South Korea in March, Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said at a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday in Seoul.
South Korea said in October that the U.S. startup planned to set up joint ventures with the Korean firms to build two data centres in the country with an initial capacity of 20 megawatts.
Meanwhile, Alphabet (GOOGL.O)sold a rare 100-year bond, a memo from the lead manager showed, part of a $31.51 billion global bond raise, as artificial intelligence-driven spending sparks a surge in borrowing at U.S. tech giants.
Alphabet's sale of the century bond is the tech industry's first since Motorola's (MSI.N) issuance that dates back to 1997, according to LSEG data.
"You have an extraordinary time period that we're living through now with the change in technology," said Jason Granet, chief investment officer at BNY.
"Today it comes with a 100-year debt issuance out of Google ... That's representative and indicative of a lot of the capital spending, a lot of the investment that's going through in markets and technology."
The company sold 5.5 billion pounds' ($7.53 billion) worth of sterling bonds in a five-part deal, according to the final term sheet seen by Reuters. The 100-year tranche raised 1 billion pounds and comes with a 6.125% interest rate.
Google's century bond was met with demand nearly ten times the one billion pounds sought, according to IFR data. It comes with a 6.05% yield.
The Google parent also raised 3.055 billion Swiss francs ($3.98 billion) through a five-part bond sale spanning maturities of three to 25 years, according to a memo from a separate bookrunner.
The bookrunners declined to be named as they are not authorized to speak publicly.