Banks Grow Wary of More AI Debt, Even With Anthropic or Google Behind It, Reuters Reports
Some banks that weeks ago were lining up to fund AI deals are now reluctant to finance more, even when deals are backstopped by companies such as Anthropic and Google, Reuters reported on November 9, citing several unnamed banking and credit sources. Lenders are stress-testing cash flows and scrutinising when big tech customers can cut or end commitments, after a selloff that pushed the Nasdaq 100 into a correction. Anthropic and Google declined to comment.
The guarantee was supposed to be the safe part of AI lending. Reuters now reports that some lenders are hesitating even when a deal is backstopped by one of the sector's biggest names, which says more about how full their books are than about any one borrower.
What Reuters reported#
Banks and credit investors are increasing their scrutiny of AI-related debt and showing reluctance to add exposure, Reuters reported on November 9, citing several banking and credit sources it did not name. Some banks that a few weeks ago were lining up to fund AI deals are now telling market participants they would be reluctant to finance additional deals even when they involve guarantees from the sector's marquee technology companies, the report said.
According to two of the sources, the change came in just the past few days, and some lenders have been reluctant to finance deals backstopped by names such as Anthropic and Google; the sources did not name the lenders. Anthropic declined to comment on its recent borrowing, and Google declined to comment.
Reuters said lenders are stress-testing cash flows for downturns and scrutinising contract details, including service obligations, operational deadlines and the conditions under which large technology customers could reduce or terminate commitments. "Debt investors' books have become full," Chris Poggi, a finance partner at Ropes & Gray, told Reuters.
The numbers around it#
Reuters tied the pullback to a stock selloff that erased $2.5 trillion of market value from the Nasdaq 100 on Thursday, November 5, sending the index into a correction. It cited Bank of America analyst Yuri Seliger as saying the spread on 10-year hyperscaler debt has widened by about 50 basis points this year, against roughly 20 for high-quality industrial companies not tied to AI. Nebius explored a high-yield bond in September but decided against it last month, one source told Reuters. A separate Reuters markets piece the same day said five-year credit default swap spreads on CoreWeave debt had passed 1,000 basis points.
Supply is still coming: Reuters cited Goldman Sachs Research projecting global hyperscaler debt issuance of $420 billion in 2027, against an estimated $250 billion for 2026. The squeeze is between that pipeline and lenders' appetite. Signs were already visible before this report: ING was said last week to be auctioning about $500 million of data-centre loans, and Microsoft let a 2023 Oracle AI capacity rental lapse, according to Bloomberg.
Limits#
- The core claim rests on unnamed banking and credit sources in one Reuters report; no lender is named as having refused a specific deal.
- "Reluctant" is not the same as unwilling: Reuters also reports that much more supply is coming to the AI loan market.
- Both Reuters pieces we cite come from the same news agency and are not independent of each other.