Amazon.com Inc. sold $12.75 billion of investment-grade bonds for general corporate purposes that may include repaying debt as well as funding acquisitions and share buybacks in its first note sale in about a year.

The online retail giant issued senior unsecured bonds in seven parts. The longest portion of the offering, a 40-year security, yields 1.3 percentage points over Treasuries after initial talks of around 1.55 percentage points, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the details are private.

95 basis points over Treasuries

Amazon last tapped the U.S. debt market when it sold $18.5 billion of bonds in May 2021, also for general corporate purposes that included possible refinancing of debt and share repurchases. The 40-year security on that deal priced to yield 95 basis points over Treasuries.

While yields have jumped since its last issuance, selling debt now makes sense because borrowing costs may be headed even higher as the Federal Reserve fights inflation and tightens the money supply.

Even as it once again accesses high-grade debt markets, Amazon’s credit quality is likely to continue an improving trajectory, Robert Schiffman, senior credit analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a note. The company’s balance sheet is growing and with $50 billion of outstanding bonds, it could come close to sector leader Apple Inc.’s debt of over $100 billion in the intermediate term, he added.

Amazon’s cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities stood at an all-time high of $96 billion at the end of 2021.

Amazon’s cloud-computing and ad businesses soar

The company also has aggressive business ambitions, including opening new warehouses, expanding its brick-and-mortar grocery operations and sending broadband-streaming satellites into space.

In February, Amazon wowed Wall Street with a strong earnings report. While online store sales declined from last year’s pandemic-fueled gains, the company’s profitable cloud-computing and advertising businesses combined to more than make up for it.

Still, the company spent heavily in the holiday period to ensure packages got to customers amid supply-chain bottlenecks and an acute labor shortage. A lot of that spending went into hiring 140,000 workers. Amazon also lavished bonuses on workers, dispatched half-empty vehicles if it meant getting packages to customers on time and secured space on any ship it could find — a spending spree that totaled $22.4 billion.

In March, Amazon announced a 20-to-1 stock split and a $10 billion share-buyback authorization that sent the stock soaring.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley managed Monday’s bond sale.