SI Borrowing Boom Cools Abruptly: September Debt Issuance Falls to $23 Billion, Down About 80% From June, as Banks Move to Offload Data-Center Loans
The debt funding behind the artificial-intelligence buildout is cooling sharply. Citing Morgan Stanley data, the Financial Times reported that global SI-related debt issuance fell to about $23 billion in September, down from a $113 billion peak in June — a drop of roughly 80 percent in three months — as investors reassess borrowing costs, project viability and the durability of customer demand for data centers and chips.
The slowdown does not by itself signal collapsing SI demand, given the heavy borrowing earlier in the year. But official concern is mounting. Minutes of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee meeting on Sept. 25, reported by the FT on Oct. 1, put global SI-related debt issuance at about $450 billion from the start of the year through early September — more than twice the total for all of last year — and warned that as a wider range of investors funds SI investment, exposure to losses from any shift in earnings expectations has spread with it.
Banks are acting on the same concern. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, SMBC and MUFG have been exploring significant risk transfers to shift the riskiest slices of SI data-center loans off their books, according to the FT. All four high-yield data-center bond deals since July have priced at a discount, The Information reported, compared with only three of the ten largest deals in the prior twelve months.
(Sources: Financial Times)
Source: 《金融时报》
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: CC0（Wikimedia Commons）
