AI infrastructure still getting funded

Wall Street is still finding buyers for artificial intelligence debt, even after April’s market swings rattled stocks and raised new inflation fears. (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg reported on April 11 that Morgan Stanley still expects about $400 billion of high-grade debt issuance in 2026 tied to hyperscaler and other artificial intelligence investment. More than $80 billion in dollar bonds had already been raised in the first quarter by companies including Oracle, Alphabet and Amazon. (bloomberg.com) The spending these bonds help finance is still climbing. Bloomberg reported on February 6 that Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft had forecast about $650 billion in 2026 capital expenditures, while CNBC put the combined figure closer to $700 billion as company guidance firmed up. (bloomberg.com, cnbc.com) That money is going into data centers, networking gear and the expensive processors that run artificial intelligence systems. CNBC reported that the four companies’ capital spending is projected to rise more than 60% from 2025 levels as they add chips, build facilities and wire them together. (cnbc.com) The financing mix has shifted because even the biggest technology companies do not want to fund all of that build-out from cash alone. CNBC reported that Alphabet sold $25 billion of bonds in November 2025 and that Amazon told investors in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on February 6, 2026 that it may raise both debt and equity as spending continues. (cnbc.com) Credit investors have kept showing up because the main borrowers still look strong on paper. Bloomberg said large cash balances and low leverage at hyperscalers such as Meta are giving bond buyers comfort even as spreads remain tight. (bloomberg.com) The debt wave now reaches beyond plain corporate bonds. Bloomberg reported that CoreWeave sold $1.75 billion of junk bonds after signing a new computing deal with Meta, and that Pacific Investment Management Company was planning to sell part of a $14 billion debt financing package for an Oracle data center project in Michigan. (bloomberg.com) Money managers have been framing the trend as a broader credit-market shift for months. Neuberger Berman wrote in November 2025 that artificial-intelligence-related debt had reached roughly $93 billion, or more than 5% of investment-grade issuance that year, nearly triple the 2015-to-2024 annual average of $32 billion cited from Bank of America data. (nb.com) The risks have not gone away. Bloomberg said the build-out is straining power supplies and drawing opposition from communities worried about electricity and water use, while Neuberger Berman said it remains an open question whether adoption will justify the scale of the spending. (bloomberg.com, nb.com) For now, the market’s message is simple: stock volatility has not shut the funding window. As long as the biggest artificial intelligence builders can keep selling bonds in size, the data-center build-out keeps moving. (bloomberg.com)