Morgan Stanley forecasts US corporate debt issuance to hit $2.2T in 2026

Morgan Stanley forecasts US investment-grade corporate debt issuance will reach $2.2 trillion to $2.46 trillion in 2026, driven by massive AI infrastructure spending from tech giants. The bank estimates global AI-related debt issuance will exceed $500 billion to $570 billion next year, with $200 billion directly tied to AI infrastructure and $150 billion in securitized products like data center-backed securities.

Morgan Stanley forecasts US corporate debt issuance to hit $2.2T in 2026 AI infrastructure spending by tech giants is forcing a historic wave of bond issuance that could reshape credit markets The corporate bond market is about to get very, very busy. Morgan Stanley projects that US investment-grade corporate debt issuance will land between $2.2 trillion and $2.46 trillion in 2026, a figure driven overwhelmingly by one thing: the insatiable appetite for AI infrastructure. The AI debt machine Morgan Stanley estimates that global AI-related debt issuance will exceed $500 billion to $570 billion in 2026. Through May of this year, $236 billion in AI-linked debt had already been issued, a substantial increase compared to the same period last year. The biggest borrowers are exactly who you’d expect. The so-called “Big Six” hyperscalers, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle, have historically accounted for a considerable share of tech-related bond issuance. Their combined capital expenditure plans now exceed $500 billion to $600 billion annually. Morgan Stanley’s breakdown gets more granular from there. Roughly $200 billion of technology corporate debt issuance in 2026 could be directly attributed to AI infrastructure investments. On top of that, the firm expects an additional $150 billion to flow through securitization efforts, including asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities tied to data center properties. Why companies can’t just write checks This dynamic was already visible in 2025, which saw record corporate debt activity according to Morgan Stanley’s analysis. The 2026 projections suggest that trend is accelerating rather than plateauing. What this means for investors The more interesting opportunity may sit in the structured credit layer. If $150 billion in securitized products tied to AI infrastructure materializes, that’s a new asset class forming in real time. Data center-backed securities carry their own risk profile, one that depends on tenant concentration, power availability, and the durability of AI demand. Morgan Stanley’s forecast also implies that corporate treasurers are betting heavily on sustained AI revenue growth to service all this new debt. The smaller firms borrowing alongside the hyperscalers to build AI-adjacent infrastructure may not have the same margin for error, and that’s where credit risk could emerge first. Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/ .