ING Is Said to Auction About $500 Million of Data-Center Loans, Including a Stargate New Mexico Slice
CNBC, citing Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter, reports that ING is seeking buyers through a bids-wanted-in-competition process for about 12 data-center loans totaling around $500 million. The portfolio is said to include a roughly $25 million piece linked to the Stargate project in New Mexico, involving OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle, as well as exposures tied to Vantage Data Centers and CyrusOne. Bids of $10 million or more are due by November 19, according to that reporting. An ING spokesperson declined to comment.
A large bank appearing to sell a slice of AI-campus debt is a plumbing signal, not proof that the build-out is over — and the bank itself has not confirmed the sale. CNBC reported on November 6, citing Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter, that ING is seeking buyers for a portfolio of about 12 data-center loans worth around $500 million. An ING spokesperson declined to comment, CNBC said.
The auction is described as a bids-wanted-in-competition, or BWIC, process, with bids of $10 million or more due by November 19. The portfolio is said to include a roughly $25 million piece linked to the Stargate project in New Mexico, which involves OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle, as well as certain other loan assets involving Vantage Data Centers and CyrusOne. OpenAI appears here only as a named Stargate partner, the same consortium described when SoftBank's SB Energy committed about $1 billion to Stargate power. Separately, OpenAI has been trying to show flexibility on power demand through its Grid Protectors program.
How the reports frame it#
CNBC placed the sale against bank efforts to distribute data-center credit risk and against political scrutiny of new campuses after the US midterms. It said the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% on Thursday. Data Center Dynamics, also citing Bloomberg, repeated the $500 million total, the dozen loans, the November 19 deadline, the $25 million Stargate New Mexico stake and the Vantage and CyrusOne names. DCD called the auction the first of its kind at that scale to contain exclusively data-center debt; that characterization is DCD's, not ING's.
Banks often originate infrastructure loans intending to sell them down. CNBC quoted strategist Hank Calenti saying a lend-to-distribute model is typical and that buyers can include private credit, asset managers and insurers. Whether this particular BWIC is routine distribution or an attempt to exit before conditions tighten is not something the reporting establishes.
Limits#
- ING has not confirmed the sale, the size, the Stargate slice or the timetable.
- The details flow through CNBC citing Bloomberg citing unnamed people; we did not read Bloomberg's original article this run.
- The $25 million New Mexico figure is a reported slice of a larger Stargate project, not a valuation of that project.
- DCD's "first of its kind" line is the outlet's assessment.
- The Nasdaq move is CNBC's market color, not something we independently verified from exchange data this run.