AI investment boom to lift US corporate bond issuance to $2.46 trillion in 2026

The United States (U.S.) corporate bond issuance is expected to rise sharply in 2026, driven by increasing funding requirements from artificial intelligence hyperscalers as they ramp up investments in data centres and computing infrastructure, analysts told Reuters.

Total U.S. corporate bond issuance is forecast to rise to $2.46 trillion in 2026, nearly 12% higher than the estimated $2.2 trillion in 2025, Barclays analysts said in a report. Net issuance is expected to grow at a faster pace—by over 30% year-on-year to around $945 billion—driven by refinancing requirements, a revival in mergers and acquisitions, and elevated capital spending tied to AI investments.

Analysts said that although refinancing activity and merger-related funding will boost issuance, the main push is expected to come from non-financial companies—especially major technology firms ramping up their AI investments. Hyperscalers are deploying heavy capital to expand data centres and procure advanced chips, leading to a marked increase in their borrowing needs.


The five major AI hyperscalers—Amazon, Alphabet’s Google, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Oracle—issued about $121 billion in U.S. corporate bonds last year, far above their average annual issuance of roughly $28 billion between 2020 and 2024, Reuters reported, citing data. Bank of America Securities expects borrowing by these companies to accelerate further, with average annual issuance estimated at around $140 billion over the next three years and the potential to exceed $300 billion annually.

Such a ramp-up would place the leading AI hyperscalers among the largest issuers in the U.S. investment-grade bond market, bringing their borrowing in line with, or even surpassing, that of major U.S. banks.

Recent issuance trends underline this shift. Hyperscalers accounted for four of the five largest U.S. high-grade bond deals in 2025, most of which were completed in the second half of the year. Oracle raised $18 billion in September, followed by Meta’s $30 billion bond sale in October—the largest-ever non-merger-related investment-grade bond deal by a single issuer. Alphabet and Amazon followed with deals of $17.5 billion and $15 billion, respectively, in November, according to analysts.

The surge in supply has contributed to wider credit spreads and prompted some investors to seek protection through credit default swaps. The cost of insuring hyperscaler debt has risen since mid-2025, with Oracle seeing the sharpest increase, as concerns grow over the scale and pace of AI-related borrowing.

Legal risks have also emerged alongside the borrowing boom. Bondholders filed a lawsuit against Oracle this week, alleging losses tied to inadequate disclosure around the company’s need to raise additional debt to finance its AI infrastructure expansion