Bank of America has spent months trying to assemble the financing for Related Digital, the developer behind the project

[LOS ANGELES] Pacific Investment Management Company (Pimco) is in talks with Bank of America to help provide roughly US$14 billion of debt financing to build a massive Oracle data centre in Michigan, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The deal, if finalised, would make the bond giant a key backer of a campus in Saline Township, where Oracle aims to power applications for OpenAI. The financing could be structured as a bond, and Pimco could syndicate some to other investors, the sources said, asking not to be identified describing the confidential talks.

Though the talks with Pimco are still in early stages, the firm’s emergence marks another twist in the long-running effort to round up financing for a project attracting intense scrutiny from Wall Street and locals, testing investor sentiment for such a large data centre.

Bank of America has spent months trying to assemble the financing for Related Digital, the developer behind the project. Blackstone is also planning to contribute an additional US$2 billion of equity, Bloomberg previously reported.

Representatives for Related Digital, Pimco and Bank of America declined to comment. A spokesperson for Oracle said that the company is proud of the “rapid progress” it has made in financing and developing the Saline Township facility, noting it is working with OpenAI, Related Digital and Bank of America on the effort.

The financing could be structured in a so-called 144A format, according to the sources familiar with the matter. Such bonds are privately placed debt securities that can be traded among certain institutional buyers.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/pimco-weighs-us14-billion-debt-deal-oracle-data-centre