Global bond sales reach US$1 trillion at their fastest pace ever

[NEW YORK] Global publicly syndicated bond issuance has reached US$1 trillion in record time as borrowers seize soaring demand to lock in relatively cheap costs.

The threshold was passed on Monday (Feb 2), according to data compiled by Bloomberg, after Oracle raised US$25 billion in the year’s biggest corporate bond sale. In previous years, that milestone has been hit later, on Feb 7 in 2024, and on Feb 11 last year.

More than 40 per cent of this year’s volume consists of bonds sold by governments, the data show. Financial firms are closely behind at nearly 35 per cent of the overall supply, including Goldman Sachs’ record US$16 billion deal.

Corporations, especially tech firms, are expected to start making up a larger share of supply as quarterly results get released and firms emerge from so-called earnings blackouts.

AT&T and International Business Machines sold large deals late last week, and the shift is set to continue. February and March have been among the busiest months of issuance the past four years for the tech, media and telecom sectors, according to JPMorgan Chase strategists.

Oracle’s offering comes as more than US$3 trillion is projected to be needed for funding data centres for artificial intelligence efforts.

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Complacency concerns have persisted, following a record year of global bond issuance in 2025 and as investor demand has helped push borrowing spreads to the lowest levels in decades. Some fund managers are paring their purchases of corporate notes.

Among the records set to open 2026 was the most-active January ever for issuance of euro-denominated notes and US high-grade corporate bonds. Jan 7 had a record amount of proceeds in Europe for any day, just after the US investment grade had its busiest-ever back-to-back sessions.

Bonds have not been the only historically active credit segment. Last week was the busiest ever for leveraged-loan issuance in Europe, while January saw the seventh-most launches in the US, even as cracks for the latter have started to form. BLOOMBERG