How is AI Debt: How the Build-Out Is Financed constructed?
Published by Deepstory Research as the methodology attached to AI Debt: How the Build-Out Is Financed. Scope and source attribution are bounded by that Evidence Brief.
Procedure and scope
This index tracks how the AI build-out is FINANCED, which is a different question from how much is being spent. Capex guidance is covered separately by the ai-capex-vs-defense index. Issuer figures are 2026 corporate bond issuance through early June, as reported for the five largest US tech issuers. Microsoft is inside the $159bn five-issuer total but no standalone figure is published in the cited source, so that bar is OMITTED rather than derived by subtraction. CAVEAT: the projections chart mixes three different measures — issuance to date, a hyperscaler-only sell-side range, and a broader "global AI-related debt" projection. They are not additive. The ~$800bn private-credit figure is an ESTIMATE of off-balance-sheet data-centre structures, not an issuance tally, and is the least observable number on the page. Scout run: Trending_Candidates/2026-08-06.md. Re-verified 2026-08-10.
Known failure modes and limits
- Microsoft's standalone 2026 issuance — inside the total but not separately published.
- The true size of the private-credit tranche; the ~$800bn figure is an estimate, not a tally.
- Whether issuance is matched to revenue — this index measures financing, not returns.