Bullpen.News From Edwin Dorsey
Get Daily Recap Feedback

Latest News

Market cap$50M–$500B
All Over $50MOver $300MOver $2BOver $10B
All Under $1BUnder $10BUnder $100BUnder $500B
SectorsAll
Filter by sector
Wednesday, October 21, 2026· 9339 stock ideas· 219 writers·
22,699 views· 10,583 clicks

From X

@convequity

Convequity on X

The AI build is moves more aggressively off the balance sheet Convequity’s debt scan across $MSFT $AMZN $GOOGL and $META: what these companies borrow in public is rising slowly. What they have promised to spend later — leases not yet started, equipment orders, contracted compute — is rising much faster. In 2Q26 that gap is the widest in four quarters. Off-book commitments are running toward +316% year-on-year. On-book debt is barely moving. If you only watch headline borrowings, you miss the cycle. MSFT is the clearest case. On-book debt +15% YoY. Off-book commitments +138%. That is why its all-in financing load is about 17x reported borrowings. Microsoft is under pressure from two sides: shareholders who want more AI spend, and shareholders who want less capex and faster returns. The compromise is to slow the capex it puts on its own books and lock in capacity from $IREN, $NBIS and other neo-clouds instead. How that works: IREN or NBIS borrows, builds the site and owns the chips. Microsoft signs a multi-year contract to pay for the capacity. Microsoft does not put the building on its balance sheet. It takes a future bill — rent and service payments that show up later as operating cost. Asset risk moves to the neo-cloud. Payment risk stays with Microsoft. GOOGL looks similar on a multiple and is doing something different. All-in commitments are 10.2x borrowings: $100bn of headline debt, $121bn including leases, $902bn off-book. $811bn of that off-book pile is purchase orders for its own stack — TPUs and the kit around them — not rented neo-cloud sites. On-book +190% YoY. Off-book +836%. That multiple is Google buying the factory, not renting it. META is closer to Google than to Microsoft: on-book +127%, off-book +680%. Some of Meta’s orders are reserved compute from CoreWeave and Nebius, which Meta will expense as it uses the capacity. Most of the pile is still Meta committing to build and buy for itself. AMZN is the most balanced of the four (+59% on-book / +80% off-book). Both lines are rising together. If the cycle breaks, Microsoft is less stuck with buildings and chips it owns. It is more stuck with bills it already signed. Google is more exposed because more of the capital is already spoken for on its own account. If compute gets scarcer, the extra megawatts IREN and NBIS have not yet sold can go to whoever pays more. Microsoft then has to wait or pay up. Because it owns less of the physical stack, it has less spare capacity it can simply switch on — which means higher compute costs and tighter margins. Powerful cycle. Not a broad bubble. The heat is in the promises, not the 10-Q debt line. Full AI Bubble Barometer available at Convequity.

Investor Letters

All letters

Free Recaps of the best new stock ideas, delivered every morning.

Read past recaps

Why I sold OB pick for 26 SVM

Silvercorp’s falling Ying grades, prolonged GC suspension, El Domo execution risk and Chaarat funding needs weaken its valuation despite…

SVM $2.1B
The Oak Bloke 16 clicks

Vicor Update, Part Three

Vicor’s $66.6 million in AI power-delivery royalties generated about $50 million of operating profit, eclipsing its module business as…

VICR $10B
CV's Substack 26 clicks

Carecloud News

CareCloud may attract a private-equity buyer after its Q3 call, with acquiring enough shares the main obstacle to a take-private deal.

CCLD $79M
Calvin Blissett 9 clicks

Heico Corporation

HEICO sells FAA-approved aircraft replacement parts at 30% to 50% discounts to OEMs, gaining customers as restrictive aftermarket contracts…

HEI $43B
D Invests 13 clicks
CHGG · long

Chegg Inc

Chegg is framed as a binary long with 500% upside against 20% downside.

CHGG $78M
Value Investors Club 14 clicks

Copper Fox Metals: Research Flash

Copper Fox’s C$9.1 million Schaft Creek program advances metallurgical, tailings, water and road studies toward a pre-feasibility study,…

TECK $31B
Atrium Research - Equity Research 6 clicks

Have a source we’re missing? Send your pick

Recent recaps

Latest recap

Tuesday, October 20 55 stock ideas
  • Vicor Update, Part Three CV's Substack
  • Is Microsoft Over-Earning on OpenAI? MBI Deep Dives
Read the recap

All recaps

Publications we follow

Every publication on this site, hand-picked.

129 publications

Newsletters 109

YouTube 4

Blogs 15

Seeking Alpha 54 of 245

Nominate a publication

X accounts we follow

Every account on this site, hand-picked.

90 accounts
Nominate an account

Investor letters we follow

189 firms

Sectors

Ordered by how often our editor reaches for them.

Anything we’re missing?

Send us a pick