Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Ride the AI Lending Boom

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Artificial intelligence may someday be the death of us all — The Monitor’s AI assistant begs to differ — but first, bankers are going to make a lot of money from financing it. Morgan Stanley has led or co-led the way on some $65 billion in corporate bond deals for data centers or other AI investments since October, by Bloomberg’s reckoning. JPMorgan has been a leader on AI infrastructure credit. But there’s concern that this is all getting out of hand, with two data center billionaires minted before anything is even built, and a borrower seeking a loan for 150% of the construction costs.

More froth? It almost seemed like Oprah Winfrey’s old TV show was back, the one where she puts a surprise gift under each attendee’s seat: “You get a bank charter, and you’re bank now, and here’s a bank charter for you, too!” We’re referring to the news that US regulators have given a preliminary stamp of legitimacy to five crypto firms that want to act like banks. They wouldn’t be able to take deposits or lend, but they could hold assets in custody — so look out, BNY Mellon and State Street. And the FDIC granted deposit coverage to Erebor, backed by Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey.

There are other more conventional reasons to become a genuine bank, as PayPal explained in a separate application, such as helping small businesses. And Brazil’s Nubank despite its name and 110 million customers isn’t a real bank in the eyes of its regulators, so it’s looking for a small one to buy.

This week’s career tip goes to employees of HSBC Holdings in Hong Kong: show up for work and clean up your desk. Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery will move temporarily to the Chinese city early next year, in part to cut down on a hectic travel schedule that requires him to fly out to Asia several times a year. UBS Group’s kickoff for 2026 is less benign: it’s set to begin its latest wave of job cuts in mid-January. We’ll finish, in case you missed it, with our magazine’s story on how Wall Street’s obsession with games teaches people how to win. — Rick Green

The following was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.