(Bloomberg) — A $16 billion financing for a giant Oracle Corp. (ORCL) data center in Michigan has wrapped after months of stop-and-start negotiations with investors.
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Bank of America Corp. sold $14 billion of bonds tied to the project, in a debt sale that was anchored by Pacific Investment Management Co., according to a statement by the data center developer Related Digital.
Pimco bought about $10 billion of the bonds that priced Friday, while other investors bought the remainder of the debt, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.
The debt is part of a larger $16 billion financing package that will fund the data center in Saline Township in southeastern Michigan. Oracle is the tenant and aims to use the campus to power applications for OpenAI, Bloomberg has reported.
The financing includes equity from Related Digital and funds affiliated with Blackstone Inc. The latter contributed about $2 billion of the equity, Bloomberg previously reported.
The bonds were sold privately in a 144A offering, meaning they can only be bought by large institutional investors, the people said. The notes, which mature in 2045, were priced at 98.75 cents on the dollar and carry a 7.5% coupon, according to some of the people and Bloomberg-compiled data.
A representative for Pimco declined to comment on the details of the bond financing, while representatives for Oracle also didn’t immediately comment on financing details. Those for Bank of America and for Wells Fargo & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., who were also involved, didn’t immediately respond to comment requests.
Related Digital, a venture of New York-based property developer Related Cos., said the project will play a critical role in America’s digital future.
Debt Logjam
The protracted process involving the project in Michigan’s Saline Township shows how Big Tech’s debt-fueled AI splurge is running into more intense scrutiny from Wall Street.
The financing follows other massive debt packages that banks assembled for Oracle data centers: a $38 billion debt deal to build facilities in Texas and Wisconsin, and $18 billion for a New Mexico site.
DTE Energy Co. is supplying power to the project, while Oracle is financing a new battery storage investment, according to the statement. The Saline Township campus will include three single-story data center buildings with more than a gigawatt of capacity. The project is being developed for Oracle as part of its partnership with OpenAI to expand AI compute capacity across the country.