Banks are approaching investors to purchase sizable pools of construction loans originated for Oracle's data centre projects, according to people familiar with the matter. About $56 billion of those loans have been given investment-grade ratings and are collateralised by Oracle's future lease payments under its $300 billion agreement with OpenAI.
Investment-grade status for construction-stage infrastructure loans is unusual. That grading has allowed banks to widen the set of prospective buyers beyond the traditional project-finance investor base. Insurers and private credit funds are among the types of institutions being targeted as potential purchasers, reflecting how the rating has changed the marketing dynamics for these deals.
Historically, project finance for infrastructure - such as toll roads and airports - has been underwritten and held largely by the originating banks. The scale of recent hyperscale data centre developments has strained that model, pushing technology companies to look for alternate sources of capital to fund rapid expansion.
The effort to source third-party buyers for these loans comes amid a broader uptick in debt issuance by major technology companies. Forecasts cited by market participants indicate that, by 2030, half of the 10 largest borrowers in the U.S. investment-grade bond market will be hyperscalers - firms that are accelerating cloud capacity and data centre buildouts.
Separately, Oracle has signalled plans to raise roughly $50 billion in 2026 to support its data centre expansion. The combination of very large capital requirements and investment-grade construction loans is shaping how banks and technology firms structure financing for next-generation data centre platforms.
Context and market implications
The issuance and marketing of investment-grade construction loans for data centres indicate a shift in project finance practices for very large technology-led infrastructure plays. The adoption of investment-grade ratings for loans at the construction phase has enabled lenders to pitch a broader array of institutional buyers than is typical for such debt.