Wall Street’s biggest banks extend borrowing binge to fund AI boom

The biggest banks on Wall Street are borrowing at a record clip, and they don’t plan to slow down. The reason is artificial intelligence, or more precisely, the enormous pile of money it takes to build it. Big Tech wants data centers, chips and power. Banks want to be the ones financing all of it. To do that, they first have to stock their own shelves with fresh capital. According to analysis from Barclays Plc, the six largest US banks are poised to issue approximately $41 billion in senior debt in the fourth quarter of 2026. That would be a 30% increase over the long-term average for that stretch of the calendar. The numbers behind the binge The projected fourth-quarter haul follows a busy summer. Third-quarter issuance reached around $50 billion, more than double the amount from a year earlier. Year-to-date global debt issuance from US banks now stands at $192 billion, up roughly 40% compared with the previous year. Full-year projections have been adjusted to $233 billion, with an even higher figure of $294 billion for US banks overall. Senior debt sits near the front of the line if a borrower runs into trouble. It gets repaid before junior bonds and equity holders. For banks, se...