Home / Business and Economy / AI Data Centers Fuel $2.15B Junk Bond Frenzy
AI Data Centers Fuel $2.15B Junk Bond Frenzy
3 Mar
Summary
- Applied Digital aims to raise $2.15 billion via junk bonds for AI infrastructure.
- Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude experienced an outage due to high demand.
- Pentagon's supply-chain risk designation for Anthropic sparks controversy.
Applied Digital Corp. is preparing to raise $2.15 billion through junk bonds to finance the construction of a 200-megawatt data center in North Dakota. This move is part of a broader trend of companies seeking debt financing for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The company has secured a lease agreement for the North Dakota facility with an investment-grade hyperscaler, anticipating it will generate $5 billion in contracted revenue over 15 years. This offering tests investor appetite for speculative-grade debt amidst geopolitical tensions.
Meanwhile, Anthropic's AI chatbot, Claude, experienced an outage impacting nearly 2,000 users due to unprecedented demand. The company resolved the issue, stating "consumer-facing surfaces" were offline but business integrations remained unaffected.
Anthropic's surge in usage coincides with its dispute with the US Defense Department over its technology's potential use for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. The Pentagon's designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk has been met with strong opposition from the company, which vows legal challenges.
In parallel, rival OpenAI has agreed to deploy its AI models within the Pentagon's classified network, highlighting differing approaches to government contracts and AI ethics regarding surveillance and weaponry.
