In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing today, Amazon.com Inc. said it has reached an agreement with several lenders for an $8 billion unsecured loan.

The e-commerce giant didn’t specify at first where the money will be allocated, saying only that it will go toward “general corporate purposes.” Amazon later told Reuters, “Given the uncertain macroeconomic environment, over the last few months we have used different financing options to support capital expenditures, debt repayments, acquisitions, and working capital needs.”

The loan will mature in 364 days but can be extended for another 364 days. If that happens, the current interest rate of 0.75% will increase to 1.05%.

According to the filing, the lenders include Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. New York branch, Bank of China’s Los Angeles branch, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, DBS Bank Ltd., Mizuho Bank Ltd., National Westminster Bank Plc, and TD Securities (USA) LLC.

Like most large tech companies, Amazon has had a tough year. In the latter part of 2022, the company reported a slowdown of its cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services Inc., and overall a balance sheet that was not as healthy as was expected. In terms of AWS, this was the slowest revenue growth since 2014.

The company’s online retail business didn’t fare much better. Amazon had expanded in this area during the lockdowns, but as people returned to the high streets, the company saw a reversal of fortunes. Amazon’s advertising sales were at least something to be positive about compared with how competitors such as Meta Platforms Inc. fared. Nonetheless, the economic slowdown has meant Amazon has had to take some drastic measures, like most other tech companies.

Those measures have included introducing a hiring freeze and possibly letting go about 10,000 employees worldwide. The company has also paused the development of some of its products and said goodbye to its telehealth service, which was set to be a big earner. A strong dollar has also helped push down Amazon’s share price by about 50%.

The company reported in the third quarter that its long-term debt now stands at about $59 billion.

Photo: Scott Lewis/Flickr