Investors reassess risks as AI financing rattles tech companies

The AI boom has a financing problem, and the bond market has started saying so out loud. Investors are paying more to insure against defaults at some of the biggest names in tech, according to an October 8, 2026 Bloomberg report. The trigger is debt, and lots of it. Companies including Oracle, Broadcom and SpaceX have priced nearly $500 billion in new AI-related borrowing in 2026 alone. The cost of insurance is climbing Credit default swaps, or CDS, work a lot like an insurance policy on a company’s debt. A buyer pays a regular premium, and if the borrower defaults, the seller covers the loss. Broadcom’s five-year CDS widened to a record 136 basis points on October 8 and 9, 2026. A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point, so that spread works out to about 1.36% of the insured amount per year. Oracle’s numbers look even heavier. Its CDS hit fresh highs near 261 basis points, putting it at the front of the line in tech credit anxiety. Those spreads can be translated into rough odds of default. As of early October 2026, five-year CDS pricing implied a default probability above 20% for Oracle. SpaceX came in at about 16% on the same measure. Nvidia, arguably the poster child...