Data Centre Accounting Gap Draws Moody’s Warning as Big Tech Capital Spending Surges

Data Centre Accounting Gap Draws Moody's Warning as Big Tech Capital Spending Surges

Moody's has flagged what it calls a significant gap in how Big Tech companies account for their data centre investments, raising questions about financial transparency just as the sector pours unprecedented sums into AI infrastructure.

The credit rating agency's alert comes amid a broader market selloff in software and private capital shares, and as enterprise software companies face mounting pressure from AI disruption. For CFOs navigating the AI investment wave, the warning highlights a tension that's becoming harder to ignore: the accounting frameworks built for traditional capex don't quite fit the new reality of hyperscale AI buildouts.

Here's the thing everyone's missing. Data centres aren't new—tech companies have been building them for decades. But the scale and speed of current AI-driven construction is different, and apparently the accounting treatments haven't kept pace. Moody's is essentially saying: "We've looked at the footnotes, and something doesn't add up." (This is credit analyst speak for "we're worried about what we can't see.")

The timing is notable. Franklin Templeton's CEO recently warned that AI threatens enterprise software companies, a statement that sent ripples through the sector. Now Moody's is raising a different concern—not about competitive threats, but about how these massive infrastructure investments appear on balance sheets.

The practical question for finance leaders: if Moody's can't get comfortable with the current disclosure, what does that mean for your own AI investment cases? The rating agency's job is to assess credit risk, which means they're looking at cash flows, asset values, and the sustainability of capital allocation. When they flag an "accounting gap," they're signaling uncertainty about one or more of those variables.

This isn't academic. The market is already jittery—US software and private capital shares hit a fresh wave of selling, and stocks slipped as global trade faces new tariff threats. Add accounting opacity to that mix, and you've got a recipe for multiple compression.

The broader pattern here is familiar to anyone who lived through previous infrastructure booms. Build fast, account later, then scramble when investors start asking harder questions about returns. The difference this time is the sheer magnitude of capital involved and the speed at which it's being deployed.

What to watch: whether Big Tech responds with enhanced disclosure, or whether this becomes a protracted back-and-forth with rating agencies and regulators. For CFOs considering their own AI infrastructure investments, Moody's warning is a reminder that the market will eventually demand clarity on what these assets are actually worth—and that clarity might arrive at an inconvenient time.