Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
We are exposed to market risks, including changes to foreign currency exchange rates, interest rates, and equity price risk.
Foreign Currency Exchange Risk
We have foreign currency risks related to our revenue and operating expenses denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, primarily the Euro. Accordingly, changes in exchange rates, and in particular a strengthening of the U.S. dollar, have in the past, and may in the future, negatively affect our revenue and other operating results as expressed in U.S. dollars. See Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Foreign Exchange Impact on Revenue section included in Part II, Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.
We have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in our net income as a result of transaction gains or losses related to remeasuring monetary asset and liability balances that are denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of the entities in which they are recorded. At this time, we have not entered into, but in the future we may enter into, derivatives or other financial instruments in an attempt to hedge our foreign currency exchange risk. It is difficult to predict the effect hedging activities would have on our results of operations. Foreign currency exchange net losses of $690 million, $366 million, and $81 million were recognized in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively.
Interest Rate Sensitivity
Our exposure to changes in interest rates relates primarily to interest income and market value of our cash equivalents, marketable debt securities, and the fair value of our long-term debt.
Our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable debt securities consist of cash, time deposits, money market funds, U.S. government securities, U.S. government agency securities, and investment grade corporate debt securities. Our investment policy and strategy are focused on preservation of capital and supporting our liquidity requirements. Changes in U.S. interest rates affect the interest earned on our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable debt securities, and the market value of those securities. A hypothetical 100 basis point increase in market interest rates would have resulted in a decrease of $680 million and $355 million in the market value of our available-for-sale debt securities and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Any realized gains or losses resulting from such interest rate changes and from the current unrealized gains or losses would only occur if we sold the investments prior to maturity.
As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, we also had aggregate principal amounts of fixed-rate senior notes (the Notes) outstanding of $29.0 billion and $18.50 billion, respectively. Since our Notes bear interest at fixed rates and are carried at amortized cost, fluctuations in interest rates do not have any impact on our consolidated financial statements. However, the fair value of the Notes will fluctuate with movements in market interest rates, increasing in periods of declining interest rates and declining in periods of increasing interest rates.
Equity Price Risk
Our equity investments include marketable and non-marketable equity securities subject to equity price risks that could have a material impact on the fair value or carrying value of our holdings. Our marketable equity securities are publicly traded stocks and our non-marketable equity securities are investments in privately-held companies without readily determinable fair values.
79
Table of Contents
We record marketable equity securities not accounted for under the equity method at fair value based on readily determinable market values, of which publicly traded stocks are subject to market price volatility and represent $1.23 billion of our investments as of December 31, 2024. A hypothetical adverse price change of 10% on our December 31, 2024 balance would decrease the fair value of marketable equity securities by $123 million. We did not hold any marketable equity securities as of December 31, 2023.
We elected to account for substantially all of our non-marketable equity securities using the measurement alternative, which is cost, less any impairment, adjusted for changes in fair value resulting from observable transactions for identical or similar securities of the same issuer. We perform a qualitative assessment at each reporting date to determine whether there are triggering events for impairment. The qualitative assessment considers factors such as, but not limited to, the investee's financial condition and business outlook; industry and sector performance; economic or technological environment; and other relevant events and factors affecting the investee. Valuations of our non-marketable equity securities are complex due to the lack of readily available market data and observable transactions. Uncertainties in the global economic climate and financial markets could adversely impact the valuation of the companies we invest in and, therefore, result in a material impairment or downward adjustment in our investments. Our total non-marketable equity securities, which mostly consists of our investment in Jio Platforms Limited, had a carrying value of $6.07 billion and $6.14 billion as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
For additional information, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, Note 5 — Financial Instruments, Note 6 — Non-marketable Equity Securities, and Note 10 — Long-term Debt in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" and Part II, Item 7, "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations — Critical Accounting Estimates" contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
80
Table of Contents