AI debt sales are surging
Debt issuance tied to AI projects has surged as investors seek exposure to the sector even amid market volatility, supporting funding for data centres and hardware. Bloomberg’s coverage highlights rising credit flows into capital‑intensive AI infrastructure just as volatility is becoming more persistent. (www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-11/ai-juggernaut-rumbles-on-even-as-markets-whipsaw-credit-weekly)
Borrowing tied to artificial intelligence projects is still climbing, even after a week that pulled more than $5 billion out of United States high-grade bond funds. (bloomberg.com) Morgan Stanley told Bloomberg it still expects about $400 billion of high-grade debt issuance in 2026 to help fund hyperscalers and other artificial intelligence investments. Bankers told Bloomberg jumbo bond sales from hyperscalers alone could top $100 billion over the rest of the year. (bloomberg.com) Oracle, Alphabet and Amazon had already raised more than $80 billion of dollar debt in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg. The same report said the final week of March brought the biggest weekly outflow from United States high-grade debt funds since April 2025. (bloomberg.com) The borrowing is paying for the physical side of artificial intelligence: data centers, power equipment, networking gear and the Nvidia chips that run model training. Those projects cost billions up front, so companies are turning to loans and bonds instead of waiting for cash flow. (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg reported in February that about $170 billion of the roughly $950 billion of debt issued in 2025 was tied to data-center-related loans, up 57% from the prior year, citing IJGlobal. That shift moved artificial intelligence from a stock-market story into the credit markets that finance long-lived infrastructure. (bloomberg.com) Recent deals show how quickly the market is scaling. CoreWeave said on March 31 that it closed an $8.5 billion delayed-draw term loan, which it called the first investment-grade-rated financing backed by graphics processing unit infrastructure and a customer contract. (investors.coreweave.com) In Europe, Mistral said on March 30 that it raised $830 million of debt to buy 13,800 Nvidia chips for a data center near Paris scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2026. Reuters reported that seven banks participated in the financing. (finance.yahoo.com) The money is arriving as investors keep debating whether artificial intelligence spending will outrun demand. CNBC reported that global data center deals reached a record $61 billion in 2025 even as some investors questioned how long the construction pace could hold. (cnbc.com) For now, credit markets are still treating artificial intelligence infrastructure as financeable, not optional. The next test is whether bond buyers keep funding the buildout if volatility, inflation fears and energy costs stay high. (bloomberg.com)
