Costs to protect US tech giants' debt against default hit fresh record highs Friday, driven by weak earnings from Intel and Amazon and growing skepticism over AI spending. Intel's five-year CDS surged 22.4 basis points to 127.9 bps, while Amazon's rose 6.9 bps to 94 bps — both all-time highs. Risk gauges for Broadcom, AMD, Microsoft, Alphabet, and SpaceX also climbed.
Tech firms have borrowed nearly $500 billion this year for AI infrastructure, double the total for all of 2025. Supply concerns are fueling a sharp repricing of credit risk, with AI-related borrowers now accounting for nearly 14% of Americas corporate single-name CDS open interest, up from 4% a year ago, per Barclays. Oracle announced it will raise only $20 billion over several years, including $10 billion in gross debt, easing some pressure.
Meta sold nearly $100 billion in equity and may issue more bonds before 2027. Microsoft sold $25 billion in bonds — its first since 2017 — with demand reaching $115 billion, though longer tranches widened by up to 5 bps. Barclays warns: “Credit markets are not off the hook.”.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing