Amazon has been granted an $8 billion unsecured loan.

The loan will, according to United States Securities and Exchange Commission report, be used for ‘general corporate purposes’.

The loan has been provided by a variety of institutions, including the Bank of China, DBS Bank, and Mizuho Bank. The loan will mature in 364 days, but may be extended for an additional period of 364 days and has an interest rate of 0.75 percent, increasing to 1.05 percent should the loan be extended.

An Amazon spokesperson told Reuters that the company applied for the loan as part of a ‘range of financing options’ taken by Amazon in this ‘uncertain macroeconomic environment’ to support ‘capital expenditures, debt repayments, acquisitions, and working capital needs’.

After spending billions on increasing its fulfillment network during the pandemic, Amazon has since seen its income fall alongside the suffering economy.

With sales slowing, Amazon was forced to stop or delay plans for several warehouses last year. In November last year, the company announced plans to lay off ~10,000 employees, primarily from the devices department, retail division, and human resources group.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) also reported a slowdown in its cloud computing business. Despite this, AWS stated that it was looking to keep hiring and building data centers. The data from this quarter showed the slowest revenue growth for the cloud provider since 2014.

The dramatic increase in energy prices has also had a huge impact on the company - with the company’s spending on shipping increasing by 10 percent to $19.9 billion in Q3 of 2022.

At the end of that same quarter, the company had around $35 billion in cash and cash equivalents and long-term debt of around $59 billion. The value of the company's shares went down almost 50 percent in 2022.