Rumor has it that the syndicate led by Damo plans to divest 15 billion US dollars of AI data center debt: despite being endorsed by Google (GOOG.US), the bonds are still speculative

The Zhitong Finance App learned that, according to reports, a bank consortium led by Morgan Stanley (MS.US) is preparing to sell a debt of about 15 billion US dollars. The debt is related to a data center project supported by Google (GOOG.US) and leased to AI startup Anthropic. Even with Google's endorsement, this batch of bonds is expected to be classified as speculative.

The financing relates to a 2,000-acre data center campus developed by Nexus Data Centers in Hubbard, Texas. The park will deploy Google TPU chips, and Anthropic will sign a long-term agreement to rent the facility, and Google will provide support and endorsement for this.

The report said that this refinancing can help banks remove this debt from their balance sheets, reduce their risk exposure in the AI infrastructure financing business, and free up more space for credit investment.

The $15 billion funding is expected to be refunded through multiple bond issuances, and Nexus Data Centers will withdraw the loan in stages once construction milestones are reached. Part of the debt may also be refunded in the leveraged loan market.

People familiar with the matter revealed that despite Google's support, this batch of bonds is still expected to be rated speculative. The reason is that Google's guarantee only takes effect after the data center is completed, and investors still need to bear risks such as project construction and cost overruns.

Currently, demand for data center project financing continues to squeeze the traditional infrastructure credit market, and more and more banks are turning to the bond market to refinance large-scale AI infrastructure loans.

According to reports, the amount of debt issued by tech giants to finance AI infrastructure has surged since 2026, causing the global bond market to show clear signs of “indigestion” and investor fatigue. The media reported in July that the six “AI hyperscale computing companies”, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Oracle, Nvidia, and SpaceX, have issued a total of about $244 billion in bonds in the global bond market this year, more than double the $108 billion last year, and more than 14 times the $17 billion in 2024.

New bonds rapidly weakened in the secondary market due to oversupply. The spread on Alphabet and Meta's 10-year bonds widened significantly, far exceeding the average spread on overall investment-grade bonds, reflecting investors' demand for higher risk compensation. Goldman Sachs investment-grade bond trader Jeffrey Papai said bluntly that the issuance of AI-related bonds has “exhausted the digestion” of the market.