What moved markets on Friday
Intel and Amazon set the tone, and not in a good way. According to ICE Data Services, Intel's five year credit protection cost hit 127.9 basis points per year after a Friday morning jump of 22.4 basis points, with both figures at record highs. Broadcom's measure also reached a new peak, while Advanced Micro Devices rose to territory last seen in early 2019.
After it flagged capital spending ahead of expectations and the slowest expansion in its core e commerce unit in three years, Amazon's gauge set a new high, adding 6.9 basis points to reach 94 basis points a year. Similar risk indicators for Microsoft, Alphabet and SpaceX also notched records Friday morning.
The AI borrowing wave and repricing of risk
The AI buildout is being funded at scale. Bloomberg data show companies have raised nearly 500 billion dollars this year to fund data centers, chips and other AI efforts, compared with about 200 billion for all of 2025. That supply backdrop is feeding a sharp risk reset, with credit insurance prices pushing to fresh highs and credit spreads sitting at their widest in decades.
Activity is swelling alongside the repricing. Trading and outstanding risk have jumped, and Barclays credit strategists wrote Friday that AI related borrowers now account for close to 14% of open interest in the Americas corporate single name CDS market, up from 4% a year ago.
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Corporate responses and the tape
Some hyperscalers are adjusting to tighter credit conditions. Oracle, which has the most actively traded CDS, said earlier this week it plans only 20 billion dollars of additional capital raises over the next several years, including just 10 billion of gross debt. Its five year CDS strengthened the most in nearly nine months after the update.
Meta Platforms has leaned on equity, selling nearly 100 billion dollars as part of a push to diversify funding, and there are expectations it could return with another bond sale before 2027. Microsoft tapped the market Thursday with 25 billion dollars of bonds, its first since 2017, drawing orders up to 115 billion. By 10:25 a.m. in New York on Friday, the longest dated pieces were wider by as much as 5 basis points, while the rest of the new issue held roughly steady, per Trace.
Why it matters for your portfolio
When AI capex meets a crowded primary calendar, credit risk can reprice fast. Record CDS levels across marquee tech names, spreads at multi decade wides, and heavy issuance show funding costs are in focus again. As Barclays' Brad Rogoff and Dominique Toublan put it, "Credit markets are not off the hook."
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