Nearly half of 2026's US data-centre bonds are junk-rated, up from about a quarter in 2025

About $37 billion of the roughly $80 billion in bonds sold this year to finance US data centres is rated below investment grade, around 46%, versus $8.6 billion of $36 billion (24%) in 2025, according to a Forbes analysis of FactSet data charted by Social Capital. The junk bonds finance projects leased to or backed by companies such as Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, Oracle and neoclouds including CoreWeave and Fluidstack. Investors are pulling back: average yields on the bonds neared 10% in mid-October and about $4 billion of CoreWeave debt traded below 80 cents on the dollar, while indebted developers Firmus, SB Energy and AirTrunk postponed or cancelled IPOs.