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This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe\/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters here<\/p>\n
Good morning and welcome back. In today\u2019s newsletter:<\/p>\n
AI debt boom pushes US corporate bond sales close to record <\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Private credit firms pile into consumer debt<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
How China competes in caviar and other luxury food markets<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
And the best and worst TV shows of 2025<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
We begin in the US, where the artificial intelligence debt boom has pushed corporate bond sales close to record levels.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/strong> US companies have sold $1.7tn of investment-grade bonds this year, stoked by a rush of borrowing to fund AI infrastructure that has spurred concerns over a debt glut. <\/p>\n The issuance \u2014 closing in on the record $1.8tn issued in 2020 as businesses rushed to shore up their finances during the Covid pandemic \u2014 came as companies took advantage of relatively low borrowing costs to refinance their debt. But the debt sales also reflect an AI borrowing boom as Big Tech groups tapped bond markets to fund the construction of data centres and the energy systems needed to power them.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the outlook for 2026?<\/strong> AI-related borrowing now accounts for about 30 per cent of net investment-grade issuance, according to Goldman Sachs, and is expected to grow further in 2026. \u201cThis is just the tip of the iceberg,\u201d said Erin Spalsbury, head of US investment-grade bonds at Insight Investment. \u201cIt\u2019s very safe to say that we will have more issuance next year. The market is preparing for that.\u201d Kate Duguid has more from New York.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what else we\u2019re keeping tabs on today:<\/p>\n Economic data:<\/strong> The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases third-quarter US growth data which includes core inflation figures. The Commerce department reports durable goods orders and the Federal Reserve releases its industrial production and capacity utilisation reports. Brazil and Mexico publish inflation data for the first half of December.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Venezuela: <\/strong>President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government has requested that the UN Security Council meet to discuss \u201congoing US aggression\u201d against the country, according to the Reuters news agency. A UN diplomat said the meeting was scheduled for next Tuesday. Here\u2019s the latest on the US blockade.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n 1.<\/strong> Exclusive: ByteDance is set to expand <\/strong>its multibillion-dollar AI outlay next year, as China\u2019s top tech groups seek to keep pace with their US rivals. The TikTok owner has made preliminary plans to spend $23bn in capital expenditure in 2026, according to two people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n More technology news:<\/strong> Google\u2019s parent Alphabet agreed to acquire data centre energy group Intersect Power for close to $5bn, as it races to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n 2.<\/strong> Private credit firms snapped up nearly 14 times<\/strong> as much consumer debt this year as in 2024,<\/strong> piling into riskier areas such as credit cards and buy now, pay later debt. The rush of deals raises concerns about underwriting standards and risk management by Wall Street firms.<\/p>\n 3. Donald Trump has announced plans to build two \u201cTrump-class battleships\u201d for a new \u201cGolden Fleet\u201d for the US Navy.<\/strong> The president said construction of the ships, outfitted with hypersonic weapons, electric railguns and high-powered lasers, would begin \u201calmost immediately\u201d.<\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> A daily pill version of Novo Nordisk\u2019s Wegovy injection<\/strong> has secured a green light from the US drug regulator, giving the Danish drugmaker a head start as the first to market in the next big competitive frontier in weight-loss treatments. Read the full report.<\/p>\n 5. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has agreed to personally backstop the $40bn equity financing<\/strong> of Paramount\u2019s $108bn hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery, in an attempt to resolve doubts about the financing of the offer. But Paramount, which is led by the billionaire\u2019s son, David, did not raise its offer price. Read more on Larry Ellison\u2019s \u201cirrevocable personal guarantee\u201d.<\/p>\n More M&A news:<\/strong> Nelson Peltz\u2019s Trian\u00a0Fund Management and a group of investors led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital group General Catalyst have announced they will acquire asset manager Janus Henderson in an all-cash deal valued at $7.4bn.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Kaluga Queen, a brand of caviar developed by experts working for China\u2019s agriculture ministry<\/span> \u00a9 Wang Zhao\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n China is becoming an increasingly important luxury food producer. The world\u2019s second-largest economy now accounts for the majority of the global production and export of caviar. It has surpassed Australia as the second-largest producer of macadamia nuts and is stepping up sales of cherries, wild truffles and foie gras. How did China become a luxury food powerhouse?<\/p>\n US trade:<\/strong> Tariffs are helping America\u2019s re-industrialisation, writes US trade representative Jamieson Greer.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Year in a word \u2014 AI bubble: <\/strong>Silicon Valley and Wall Street are starting to acknowledge the excesses of Big Tech valuations, writes Katie Martin.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n A year to forget:<\/strong> John Elkann, the scion of the Agnelli family, Italy\u2019s most famous business dynasty, faced a pile-up of problems in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Russia\u2019s wage growth has slowed sharply since the start of the year, according to analysis by the Financial Times, pointing to growing imbalances in the economy as the war in Ukraine drags on. The slowdown in wage growth will add to pressures on state finances which have become more reliant on taxation as energy revenues have declined. Read more on Russia\u2019s slowing war economy.<\/p>\n From Adolescence<\/em> to Pluribus<\/em> and the Seth Rogen-aissance, three FT writers (and TV addicts) talk through the best and worst shows of 2025.<\/p>\n Scenes from \u2018Adolescence\u2019, \u2018White Lotus\u2019 season 3, \u2018All\u2019s Fair\u2019 and \u2018The Studio\u2019<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe\/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters here Good morning and welcome back. In today\u2019s newsletter: AI debt boom pushes US corporate bond sales close to record Private<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[818,710,1083,4219,1049,2309,1099,3570],"class_list":{"0":"post-38778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bond","9":"tag-boom","10":"tag-close","11":"tag-corporate","12":"tag-debt","13":"tag-pushes","14":"tag-record","15":"tag-sales"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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