(Bloomberg) — As tech companies gear up to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars to fuel investments in artificial intelligence, lenders and investors are increasingly looking to protect themselves against it all going wrong.
Banks and money managers are trading more derivatives that offer payouts if individual tech companies, known as hyperscalers, default on their debt. Demand for credit protection has more than doubled the cost of credit derivatives on Oracle Corp.’s bonds since September. Meanwhile, trading volume for credit default swaps tied to the company jumped to about $4.2 billion over the six weeks ended Nov. 7, according to Barclays Plc credit strategist Jigar Patel. That’s up from less than $200 million in the same period last year.
“We’re seeing renewed interest from clients in single-name CDS discussions, which had waned in recent years,” said John…
