ING is reportedly shopping $500 million of data-center loans, including a slice of Stargate

Single-source report. Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that ING Groep is seeking buyers for about $500 million of data-center loans. CNBC and Global Banking & Finance Review carried the report. Both trace back to Bloomberg's sourcing, so this is one report repeated, not independent confirmation. ING declined to comment, and we found no ING release or regulatory filing on the sale.

What is reported to be for sale

• A portfolio of 12 data-center loans worth about $500 million, offered together.
• One piece is a $25 million loan tied to a New Mexico data center that is part of the Stargate project, backed by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle.
• Other loans are linked to Vantage Data Centers and CyrusOne.
• The method is a "bids wanted in competition," or BWIC: an auction run by the seller. Bids are due November 19, with a $10 million minimum per bid.

The reports give no indicative price, no discount and no list of likely buyers. That is the gap that matters. Without a price, nobody outside the auction can say whether these loans trade near par or at a haircut.

Routine, or a lender heading for the exit?

Banks often arrange loans and then sell them on. Hank Calenti of SMBC told CNBC that buyers can include private credit firms, asset managers and insurers looking for higher returns, and that the sale "could be business as usual, or financiers looking to exit before the door shuts." Both readings fit what is public. At $500 million across 12 loans, with a $25 million Stargate slice, this is small next to the borrowing in the sector. Its weight is as a signal, and the signal is unproven until a clearing price is known.

It is not the first such move this year. CNBC notes that the Financial Times reported in May that JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were exploring ways to cut data-center lending exposure, including private sales to non-bank lenders and significant risk transfers. That is a report we have not verified ourselves.

The backdrop: a market already under pressure

CNBC says the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% on Thursday, its worst day since April 2025, entering correction territory, and ties the unease to Democratic midterm wins that could bring moratoriums or limits on data-center construction in some states. Our own chart from Yahoo Finance data shows the Nasdaq Composite closing at 24,315 on November 5, 11.9% below its October 6 peak. The Global Banking & Finance write-up notes that its source does not say the selloff caused ING's sale. The two events are simply close together.

How big is the debt behind this?

The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee put numbers on it in its September meeting. As reported by FStech, bank analysts estimated that about $450 billion of AI-related debt had been supplied this year, and Morgan Stanley analysts estimated that $700 billion of data-center capital spending from 2026 to 2028 would be funded by private credit. We could not open the Bank's own page in this run, so treat those as figures reported from the record. Our earlier report on that record has more.

Compared with $700 billion of expected private-credit financing, a $500 million sale is about 0.07%. That is arithmetic on two different time horizons, meant only to show scale: one bank's auction is not a market event on its own.

Who it touches

The people who feel loan-market stress first are not tech executives. They are mid-sized contractors, electrical and HVAC firms and landowners whose work depends on a campus getting built. If lenders pull back, projects can slip, as with the questions raised in our reports on Oracle's New Mexico campus and Texas halting data-center permits. Funds that hold this debt also matter; see Blue Owl's private-credit tender figures and Meta's $25 billion bond sale, which shows the investment-grade side of the same borrowing wave.

What to watch

• The result of the November 19 deadline: whether the loans sell, and at what price, if that becomes public.
• Any ING statement or confirmation from a buyer.
• Whether other banks are reported to run similar auctions.

Sources: Bloomberg News report as relayed by CNBC (Nov. 6, 2026) and Global Banking & Finance Review; FStech on the Bank of England Financial Policy Committee record (Oct. 1, 2026); Chronicle chart from Yahoo Finance data. Unconfirmed by ING. This is market information, not investment advice.