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Global corporate bond markets reshaped by AI debt sales

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  • Big Tech bond offerings from Europe to Japan and Switzerland show smaller markets, traditionally dwarfed by the U.S., can flex their muscles in the $40 trillion corporate debt sector.

Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) is already one of the largest outstanding borrowers in the sterling and Swiss franc corporate bond markets, while Amazon (AMZN.O) raised 14.5 billion euros ($16.88 billion) in March from an eight-part deal, the biggest ever in the euro corporate bond market, LSEG said.

The debt issuance by so-called “hyperscalers”, or Big Tech, outside the United States is part of a campaign to diversify funding early as they plan to finance trillions of dollars of investment in AI infrastructure, mainly data centres, in the years ahead, bankers say.

Companies can also hedge their currency risk on global assets by issuing debt in foreign currencies, benefiting from relatively cheaper borrowing costs in regions like Europe.

Alphabet broke records across markets, with its yen, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and sterling deals all breaking borrowing marks in respective currencies.”If you fast forward 12 months looking at the pace of investment of these companies, some of these companies are going to be already among the biggest issuers globally in any currency,” said Giulio Baratta, co-head of investment-grade finance at BNP Paribas.

Meanwhile, Alphabet and Amazon have helped increase borrowing by non-financial U.S. corporations in Europe to above 60 billion euros ($69.85 billion) this year, another record.

DEBT SALES RECORD

Morgan Stanley forecasts euro debt issuance from the hyperscalers to hit roughly 50 billion euros in borrowing this year, a move that could help the U.S. edge past France as the largest provider of overall corporate debt in the euro zone.”A lot of these markets, including euro, have evolved and now provide a lot more depth and opportunity for larger capital raising than was historically the case,” said John Servidea, global co-head of investment grade finance at JPMorgan, which guided recent offers for the two hyperscalers.

Hyperscalers sold a record amount of international non-financial corporate bonds this year in markets such as the Swiss franc and yen, LSEG tracked.

The capacity for U.S. companies beyond the hyperscalers to raise considerable amounts of money in such markets has not gone overlooked, Servidea added.“They’re definitely looking at other markets more seriously than they would have done before.”

On a broader basis, currencies such as the Australian dollar and Hong Kong dollar have also seen an increase in borrowing as global corporations diversify their funding sources.

Meanwhile, amid international tensions and policy uncertainty, investors are turning to diversification away from the U.S. currency.

BUILDING UP EXPOSURE TO AI

Hyperscalers’ non-dollar issuance has doubled to 30% of their total bond funding this year, Bank of America said.

“It means that Big Tech can go longer periods between taps of the U.S. market and borrow at rates that are in some cases cheaper than the U.S. dollar market, or at least similar,” Servidea said in an email.

Heavy borrowing can weigh heavily on a borrower’s bonds, and experts see indicators of hyperscalers underperforming the U.S. corporate bond market. If you visit it less often, that can assist to lessen the hit.

BNP Paribas, which also arranged ​deals for Alphabet and Amazon, said the companies were mainly holding the cash in the currency they are raising rather than converting ​them back to dollars.

As for investors, they are seeking to gain exposure to the AI theme in the international bond markets where technology brands had a limited presence before.

Nicolas Forest, chief investment officer at Candriam, is one example who is buying into the euro offers from hyperscalers to increase exposure to the IT industry in the European bond market.

By the end of April, one round of issuance had seen Alphabet replace the UK’s Prudential as the fourth-largest borrower in ⁠ICE BofA’s pound corporate bond index and the sixth-largest in Swiss francs.

As tech issuance increases, corporate bond markets outside the U.S. will be more exposed to tech trends, for better or worse.“If there are problems with (AI), it will probably create more volatility,” said David Zahn, head of European fixed income at Franklin Templeton.

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Amazon raised worries about Anthropic AI models before US crackdown, source says

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was among tech titans who raised security concerns to senior Trump administration officials this week over Anthropic’s most advanced AI models, a person familiar with the subject told Reuters.

Jassy’s presence underscores the dramatic step taken by Anthropic on Friday to shut down its newest models worldwide under national security demands from the administration of President Donald Trump.

The San Francisco-based AI startup, which has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, had previously warned about hacking capabilities of its Mythos model and held it back from wide release, but earlier this week, Anthropic rolled out a public version, called Fable, with what it described as cybersecurity safeguards.

That brief release was over Friday. In a blog post, Anthropic said the U.S. government notified the company it believes there is a way to bypass, or “jailbreak,” a protection ​against using the model to uncover cybersecurity flaws.

In a blog post, Anthropic said the bypass only revealed “minor” security weaknesses that other publicly available models may find.

The Trump administration told the business to prevent any foreign nationals, inside or outside the U.S., from utilising both its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, Anthropic stated. Anthropic responded by saying it would block access to the models worldwide.

Amazon will not say if it had spoken to government officials regarding Anthropic’s models.

“It is not unusual for governments to ask us for advice about potential security issues because we are a leading cloud provider serving a large number of customers in the public and private sectors,” an Amazon spokeswoman said. “When they happen, we don’t disclose the details of these discussions.”

EXPORT RESTRICTIONS
Earlier Saturday, tech news site The Information highlighted Jassy’s concerns. The Information later reported, citing a U.S. official, that the administration was unlikely to require other AI companies to adhere to limits comparable to those placed on Anthropic.

Reuters could not immediately confirm plans by the Trump administration to regulate other corporations.

The U.S. government’s prohibitions were an export control, Anthropic stated in its blog post. The Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Commerce Department, which supervises export controls, did not react right away to a request for comment.

Officials issued the export control “reluctantly” after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei “refused” to “fix the jail break or de-deploy the model”, White House adviser David Sacks stated in a social media post on Saturday.

“The hope now is ​that Anthropic remediates the safety issue, the export control is lifted, and Fable goes back into general ​release,” wrote Sacks, ⁠co-chair of Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and once the White House’s AI czar.

Some advocates of export limits were puzzled by the Trump administration’s move because it also applies to allied nations, not only rivals.

“This wasn’t thought out very well,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior scholar at the University of California’s Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation. “It even prohibits Canadians and ​Brits working at Anthropic from doing research and development.”

The directive came as a previous fight between Trump administration officials and Anthropic was simmering down among portions of the U.S. ​government.

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Met Office forecasts windy weather in Karachi

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The weather report said that the port city will have hot and humid weather with cloudy sky and maximum temperatures will hover between 34 and 36 Celsius.

Humidity ratio remained 66% in the air in morning which is predicted to remain between 55 to 75% during day, Met Office stated.

After days of searing hot weather with excessive humidity, Karachi reverted to Seabreeze on Saturday.

The sea wind, a critical factor that controls coastal temperatures, returns, making the usually heat-beaten metropolis more bearable. The influx of humid air from the Arabian Sea provides a relief to residents.

Health officials are urging the public to keep taking measures, particularly during the high afternoon hours. Still, it’s best to stay hydrated, not to get direct sun and use sun protection.

Karachi, being coastal, generally depends on the sea wind to keep the excessive heat at bay. The recent interruption of the breeze had sent temperatures soaring and the city was humid enough to feel considerably hotter.

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Aurangzeb says IMF had not asked for a tariff on solar panels

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He disputed allegations that the government had considering taxing solar panels before the budget. ‘There was never any such demand from the IMF and the topic was never discussed,’ he said.

Aurangzeb stated in a media interaction that the government is working on a set of structural reforms in the energy sector to bring down electricity rates, improve the business environment and increase the competitiveness of major industries, according to a federal minister.

In reply to questions on the high energy costs and capacity charges carried over by successive governments, the minister said expensive power continues to pose a serious problem to industry including manufacturing, information technology, mining and other energy-intensive industries.

He said the government, in partnership with Energy Minister Awais Leghari, had already taken steps to remove cross-subsidies for industry and was pursuing changes through wheeling policy and other measures to increase efficiency in the electricity sector.

Read More : Solar panels, inverters, lithium batteries’ prices soar ahead of budget

The government is moving from short-term relief to more extensive, long-term structural reforms, the minister said. These efforts are to be expected to bear fruit in the coming years rather than immediately, he said.

Privatisation of energy distribution companies (DISCOs) is a crucial part of the reform agenda. The minister said three DISCOs had already been awarded expression of interest (EOI) and two more EOIs will soon be awarded. He said he was certain that the first batch of distribution businesses would be handed over to private sector management by the end of the year, with the rest to follow in phases.

There would need to be more regulatory control to accompany privatisation and work was beginning to ensure the regulatory system would be robust and effective, he said.

He also emphasised the ambitions to shift away from the existing single-buyer energy market model, controlled through the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), to a competitive multi-buyer system. “The change will help dismantle existing monopolistic structures and improve market efficiency,” he said.

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