Surprise: The race to fund AI data centers first is now backfiring on the big banks

Six months ago, banks were racing each other to underwrite data center loans tied to Oracle, Meta and the rest of the AI buildout. Now some of the same banks are trying to get that debt off their books. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, SMBC and MUFG have been exploring significant risk transfers, according to a report from the Financial Times. These are deals that let a bank keep a loan on paper while shifting its riskiest slice to outside investors. The banks are doing this because they are bumping up against internal limits on how much AI-linked exposure any one lender can hold.