Bank of America Bankrolls AI Ventures After Initial Skepticism

Bank of America is ramping up investments in artificial intelligence ventures after initially being skeptical of the industry’s prospects, Bloomberg reported Monday (Sept. 21).

Until last year, Bank of America had been wary of AI companies’ ability to sustain their money-losing enterprises amid all their capital spending, according to the report.

That changed in July when Bank of America provided a $520 million credit line to OpenAI. Then, in August, the bank committed to invest $250 billion in data centers, compute power and other critical infrastructure in the United States through the middle of 2027, the report said.

At the same time, Bank of America has not been in on some of the biggest corporate debt deals at a time when it is estimated that tech bonds and hyperscalers represent between 20% and 40% of new supply, per the report.

It was reported in July that the line of credit Bank of America gave OpenAI made the bank one of the AI startup’s biggest lenders and boosted the bank’s standing in financing AI-related capital projects.

The July report said that Bank of America had helped raise close to $500 billion in capital for AI-related firms since 2025 and accounted for 60% of that sort of fundraising across investment-grade debt, leveraged finance and equity capital markets.

Bank of America played a role in SpaceX’s mammoth public listing, serving as a joint bookrunner while overseeing the U.S. retail distribution effort.

When Bank of America announced its $250 billion critical infrastructure finance initiative in August, the bank said it aimed to help its clients access the capital they need to help meet surging demand for computing power, energy, manufacturing capacity, modern transportation systems and diversified supply chains.

It was reported in July that the five companies spending the most on AI data centers in the U.S., including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle, doubled their debt load over past five years to finance their efforts. In total, the companies added about $350 billion to their debt obligations.

In May, it was reported that the AI boom was fueling the best electronics sales since 2001.