DoubleLine’s Robert Cohen sees selective value in tech debt amid AI spending concerns

Tech companies went on a borrowing spree to fund their AI ambitions. Now some of their bonds are starting to look like bargains, at least to one of the sharpest eyes in corporate credit. Robert Cohen, director of corporate credit at DoubleLine, is making a case that high-quality technology bonds, specifically those issued by Alphabet and Amazon, offer compelling value after AI-related borrowing pressures dragged down valuations across the sector. It’s a nuanced position: Cohen simultaneously believes an AI credit bubble is forming with near-certainty, yet argues that the best names in the space have been punished alongside the rest. The numbers behind the borrowing binge The scale of issuance is staggering. Hyperscalers have collectively issued more than $155 billion in unsecured bonds in 2026, representing an increase of over 45% compared to the full year of 2025. Bloomberg Intelligence projects roughly $5 trillion in AI-related capital expenditures over the next five years. Cohen has been sounding alarms about this dynamic since at least late 2025, when he first flagged what he described as a near-100% probability of an AI-related credit bubble. His concern isn’t that AI itself i...