US high-grade bond sales set to break 2020 record

US investment-grade bond sales are poised to set an annual record, according to Bloomberg, surpassing the $1.75 trillion issued in 2020 during the pandemic-fueled borrowing boom.

That is a large benchmark to clear, and Bloomberg’s summary ties the move to a surge in artificial-intelligence spending that is driving companies to raise more debt.

The wording matters. “Poised” is not the same as finished, and Bloomberg’s summary gives a narrow explanation rather than a full map of every reason companies are issuing. But the reported comparison is still striking: a market associated with the strongest corporate borrowers is on track to move past a crisis-era annual total.

The central fact, as Bloomberg framed it, is not subtle. AI spending is showing up in the debt markets at enough scale to push US high-grade bond sales toward a new annual record above $1.75 trillion.

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Marcus Azzopardi Finance & Markets Editor

Marcus Azzopardi commanded men before he commanded capital. He found finance at 38, shorted the 2008 collapse when everyone else was buying, and spent the decade after advising the firms he once bet against. Five children. One diagnosis that changed everything. Still smoking. Still watching. Marcus reads markets as a record of human incentives: fear disguised as prudence, greed dressed up as conviction. He does not write to make a number feel exciting. He writes to explain what that number will do next.

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