IG Private Placements—No Longer Niche

Research evidence excerpt

Credit Strategy Research

20 August 2026 | 6:03PM EDT

GLOBAL CREDIT TRADER

IG Private Placements—No Longer Niche

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The wave of AI-related debt issuance has impacted multiple aspects of the

corporate credit markets, and IG private placements are no exception to this

trend. The IG non-financial market has seen over $270 billion of private

placement supply year to date, which is the entire supply seen last year, and puts

2026 on track for a new record.

While IG private placements have traditionally been dominated by Utilities, Oil &

Gas, and Autos, the last 12-months of issuance has been led by AI-related

sectors. For example, in 2024 only 3% of private placement issuance was

AI-related; so far this year, that share has grown to 42%.

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Of the 20 largest USD IG bond tranches issued in the past year, all have been

AI-related and the top five tranches have all been private placements. The

average private placement new issue deal has grown to $1.5 billion this year from

$1.1 billion just two years ago as large AI deals have pulled up the average.

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The issuance of “144A for life” USD IG private placements without registration

rights has grown meaningfully over the last couple of years, driven in part by AI

infrastructure-focused special purpose vehicles (SPVs). We estimate

approximately $2.4 trillion of USD IG bonds are currently index-ineligible due to

the absence of registration rights, representing 20% of the broader USD IG

market, though AI-related names still represent a small fraction of this

index-ineligible private placement universe at just over 4%.

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With the TMT cohort, which includes most AI-related issuers, we find that the

private placement excess spread premium (over registered bonds) has moved

sharply wider over the last four months.

Amanda Lynam, CPA

+1(212)934-1895 |

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

Spencer Rogers, CFA

+1(801)884-1104 |

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

Sara Grut

Goldman Sachs International

Shamshad Ali

+1(212)902-6712 |

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision. For Reg AC