Pimco, BofA in talks for $14B Oracle data centre loan
Pimco is reportedly in discussions with Bank of America to arrange about $14 billion of debt to finance a large Oracle data‑centre project in Michigan, highlighting how FIG lenders are underwriting massive TMT infrastructure. That kind of financing blurs traditional sector lines because bank balance‑sheet capacity and structured credit appetite now sit behind major cloud and AI buildouts. (x.com)
A bond giant that usually lives in the world of mortgages and corporate debt is now discussing a roughly $14 billion package for an Oracle data center in Michigan. Bloomberg reported that Pacific Investment Management Company, better known as Pimco, is talking with Bank of America about financing the Saline Township project. (bloomberg.com, reuters.com) The site is not a small server room with a backup generator behind an office park. Oracle, OpenAI, and Related Digital said in October 2025 that they planned a Michigan campus with more than one gigawatt of capacity, which is the scale of a large power plant. (related.com, oracle.com) That Michigan campus is part of Stargate, the buildout OpenAI and Oracle have been assembling to add 4.5 gigawatts of computing capacity. In plain terms, Oracle is trying to build enough electricity-hungry buildings to run artificial intelligence systems at industrial scale, not just host ordinary business software. (related.com, prnewswire.com) The financing is striking because the reported debt piece is almost as big as the project itself. Bloomberg reported last week that Related Digital was finalizing about $16 billion of financing for the campus after months of negotiations, and the new Pimco talks cover about $14 billion of that stack. (bloomberg.com, datacenterdynamics.com) Bank of America’s role matters because big projects like this usually need a bank that can structure the debt, line up buyers, and make the paperwork work across dozens of investors. Reuters said the financing could be structured as a bond, with Pimco potentially syndicating pieces to other investors instead of keeping the entire loan on its own books. (reuters.com, bloomberglaw.com) The campus is being built in Saline Township, south of Ann Arbor, and Michigan officials have described it as the largest one-time investment in state history. Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s office said the project is expected to create more than 2,500 union construction jobs, more than 450 on-site jobs, and another 1,500 jobs across the county. (michigan.gov, related.com) Oracle has tried to answer the local backlash with unusually specific promises. The company said the site would use closed-loop, non-evaporative cooling, would pay for new transmission lines and an on-site substation, and would cover 100 percent of the energy costs for the campus under contracts approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission. (oracle.com) Even with those promises, the project has drawn scrutiny from both Wall Street and nearby residents. Bloomberg reported that some investors questioned the campus’s planned power footprint and sought changes to Oracle’s lease terms, while local reporting in Michigan has shown growing fights over data-center development and land use. (bloomberg.com, planetdetroit.org) Oracle’s own numbers help explain the urgency. The company has been racing to expand cloud infrastructure for artificial intelligence customers, and Reuters noted that investors have been watching that buildout closely as Oracle’s debt load rises. (reuters.com, economictimes.indiatimes.com) So the real story is not just that Oracle wants another data center. It is that artificial intelligence infrastructure is now so expensive that a single campus in one Michigan township can require a financing package on the scale of a major buyout, pulling in Wall Street banks, bond managers, utilities, state regulators, and local voters all at once. (bloomberg.com, oracle.com)
