AI debt concerns grow as ING reportedly seeks buyers for $500 million of data center loans

ING is reportedly seeking buyers for a portfolio of 12 data center loans worth around $500 million, joining a broader push by banks to distribute credit risk tied to the artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out.

The auction is said to include a $25 million piece linked to the Stargate project in New Mexico, which involves OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle , as well as certain other loan assets involving Vantage Data Centers and CyrusOne, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

ING will hold a bids-wanted-in-competition, or BWIC, auction process, with bids sized at $10 million or more due by Nov. 19, according to Bloomberg. A BWIC is a competitive process for investors to bid on pieces of a loan portfolio.

Investment banks typically use a lend-to-distribute model for these types of loans, said Hank Calenti, global markets strategist at SMBC.

"The buyers can range from private credit investors through asset managers to insurers. They would buy these assets for their expected higher returns," he said.

The ING sale comes as fears grow over soaring debt tied to the AI build-out — and potentially disappointing returns among investors.

Those concerns have accelerated following the Democrats' sweeping win in the U.S. midterms, which could see moratoriums or tighter restrictions on data center construction in certain states.

The perceived risk of a construction slowdown sent AI-related stocks into free fall on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index closing the session down 5.5% — its worst day since April 2025 — and into correction territory.

"Whether banks sell more based on AI data centers moratorium fears should be driven by the cost (discount received) versus the benefit of exiting to free up cash for further lending, where the cost includes explaining the exposure to your board," Calenti told CNBC via email.

"This could be business as usual, or financiers looking to exit before the door shuts."

Pruksa Iamthongthong, head of APAC equities at Aberdeen Investments, said the Democrats' gains have increased concerns around greater scrutiny of data center development, at a time when investors were already questioning the financing and returns behind the scale of AI capital spending.

"We think near-term volatility could continue as the market assesses potential delays to U.S. data center construction and constraints around compute capacity."