Dutch Bank ING is reportedly seeking buyers for roughly $500M of data center loans, an unusual move that comes as fears mount that Democratic gains in the U.S. midterm elections could derail data center projects across the country.
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The bank is accepting offers for 12 loans through a process known as bids wanted in competition, Bloomberg reports. Bids on the debt are due later this month, with individual offers required to exceed $10M.
The loans being offered include $25M of debt backing Project Jupiter, the 1,400-acre New Mexico campus being developed by Blue Owl-backed Stack Infrastructure for OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank's Stargate initiative. The potentially 2.45-gigawatt project had faced concerns about possible delays before ING began marketing this debt — in September, Oracle sent developers a force majeure notice that would allow it to defer payments if the project is delayed or derailed.
ING is also reportedly looking to sell debt tied to data centers being developed by major operators like Vantage and CyrusOne. The Dutch lender is a significant player in data center financing, having been involved in more than 200 deals globally.
The auction is reportedly among the first to involve a portfolio made up exclusively of data center debt, and it comes as global markets are reassessing the risks surrounding U.S. data center development following the midterms.
Democrats won gubernatorial races in states such as Texas, Georgia and Pennsylvania where data centers became a key campaign issue. According to market research firm Cleanview, about 40% of planned data center capacity in the U.S. is in states where newly elected governors have called for a pause to data center construction.
The shifting political winds also extend to Washington, D.C., where Democrats’ control of both chambers of Congress has industry leaders bracing for more aggressive oversight and new restrictions on a sector already struggling to build fast enough to meet demand.
Wall Street has reacted accordingly. The Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4% on Thursday, its worst day since 2020, as investors sold stocks tied to the artificial intelligence infrastructure boom. The index gained back about 1.5% on Friday.
The bond markets also experienced major declines in the price of structured debt tied to AI infrastructure firms like CoreWeave and Galaxy Digital.
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