Goldman Bankers Say AI Data Center Financing Drives $20 Billion Junk-Bond Surge

The leveraged finance market is being reshaped by an unprecedented wave of AI infrastructure financing, with U.S. junk-bond issuance for data centers and power infrastructure surpassing $20 billion over the past two months, Goldman Sachs executives said at the bank's annual leveraged finance conference in Dana Point, California, on June 1, 2026. More than 400 investment executives and 85 borrowers attended the event, where Goldman's global head of leveraged finance Miriam Wheeler said AI represents "the number one theme" for the firm's capital solutions group. Apollo Global Management and Blackstone are coordinating a $36 billion financing package for AI startup Anthropic, which has confidentially filed for an initial public offering. Goldman's head of leveraged finance for the Americas, Chris Bonner, cautioned that a "sorting mechanism" is approaching as supply saturates the market. Borrowers that miss data center construction targets will face diverging bond pricing and higher capital costs. Despite the AI-driven activity, Wall Street remains hungry for a broader revival in traditional M&A financing, with deal flow in mid-sized private equity transactions still sluggish.