AI default insurance costs hit record highs

The cost of insuring against United States tech defaults hit record levels, driven by mounting anxiety over whether heavy artificial intelligence investments will generate fast enough returns to cover debt. Five-year credit default swap spreads at cloud computing giant ORACLE CORP widened 26 basis points overnight to a record 288 basis points, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. The wider spreads reflect growing investor stress across the sector as cash-burning data centres depend on future revenue to service liabilities.