Key Notes
- ING is reportedly offering about $500 million across 12 data-center loans, with bids due November 19.
- The portfolio includes a $25 million loan position linked to the Stargate campus in New Mexico.
- The reported auction comes as construction delays and political scrutiny sharpen questions about AI infrastructure lending.
ING Groep (NYSE: ING) is seeking buyers for about $500 million of data-center loans, including a slice tied to the Stargate AI project in New Mexico, as lenders face growing questions over the construction boom they have helped finance.
The Dutch bank is offering a dozen loans in a competitive auction, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Bids of at least $10 million are due November 19. ING declined to comment, and the report did not disclose an agreed sale price or a completed transaction.
The offering arrives after the U.S. election increased fears of restrictions on new data centers. For banks, the concern reaches beyond falling technology shares: a construction delay can postpone the income a project needs to pay its lenders.
A Rare Auction Tests Demand for AI Loans
The portfolio includes a $25 million loan position linked to the New Mexico campus, alongside debt associated with Vantage Data Centers and CyrusOne, according to Bloomberg. The auction is among the first devoted exclusively to data-center debt, the news agency reported.
ING is using a bids-wanted-in-competition process, commonly abbreviated BWIC. Prospective buyers submit competing offers for the loans, giving the seller an opportunity to compare the prices investors are willing to pay.
The roughly $500 million figure describes the portfolio being offered, rather than a price ING has secured. Without bids or transaction terms, it is not possible to calculate a discount, establish a loss for the bank or determine how much exposure it would retain.
A loan sale can also be routine balance-sheet management. Banks often arrange credit with the intention of distributing some of it to other investors. The sale alone does not establish that the underlying borrowers have missed payments or that ING has stopped financing data centers.
The Stargate Connection Runs Through Project Jupiter
The New Mexico exposure links the portfolio to Stargate, the infrastructure initiative involving OpenAI, SoftBank Group (TSE: 9984) and Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL). The site is known as Project Jupiter.
Oracle sent the developer a force majeure notice in September. CNBC confirmed that the recipient was a unit of Blue Owl Capital (NYSE: OWL). Bloomberg reported that Oracle was seeking protection against payments if the campus failed to open as planned in 2028, rather than trying to leave as its main tenant.
Oracle said in September that the project remained on schedule and that it was committed to New Mexico. Blue Owl said the notice did not alter the project’s financial commitments. The notice preceded the election-related uncertainty by more than a month.
Power and Permits Sit Behind the Financing
Project Jupiter illustrates how much must happen before a large AI campus can earn revenue. Buildings and computing equipment require dependable power, while pipelines and generating systems can depend on separate approvals and construction schedules.
In an April 27 announcement, Oracle said the Doña Ana County campus would use up to 2.45 gigawatts of installed fuel-cell capacity from Bloom Energy (NYSE: BE). The design replaced planned gas turbines and diesel generators with a single microgrid.
That design still required a reliable fuel supply. September reporting described delays to a natural-gas pipeline intended to serve the facility, as well as local opposition and regulatory hurdles.
For creditors, delays can extend the gap between money committed to construction and rent or service revenue arriving. The consequences depend on each contract: who pays carrying costs, when rent begins and which party bears the risk of a late opening.
Those provisions deserve close attention when a loan changes hands. A well-known tenant does not, on its own, tell a buyer how much protection a particular credit agreement provides.
Banks Look Beyond Their Own Balance Sheets
Private-credit firms, asset managers and insurers are potential buyers of these loans. Strategist Hank Calenti told CNBC that banks commonly lend with the intention of distributing the exposure. The decision to sell, he said, involves weighing the discount against the benefit of freeing capacity for additional lending.
CNBC’s report placed the ING auction within a broader effort by banks to share data-center credit risk. That helps explain why an expanding market for AI loans can coexist with lenders seeking to hold less of individual deals.
The political backdrop has become less comfortable. Voter-backed construction restrictions have already unsettled suppliers and cloud operators. Different local measures carry different legal force, so their effect depends on where a project is located and how far it has progressed.
Investors also sold AI-related shares during Thursday’s market rout, when the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52%. Loan buyers have a different calculation from shareholders: their return depends on interest and repayment, with limited benefit from a borrower’s future stock-market gains.
November 19 is the next concrete date for ING’s reported process. The bids will show what prospective buyers are prepared to pay for these particular loans—and how that price compares with the bank’s willingness to sell.
