作者：斯科特·卡彭터（Scott Carpenter）和雷切尔·格拉夫（Rachel Graf）据知情人士透露，保德信金融集团（Prudential Financial Inc.）旗下资产管理部门PGIM近期成为一项担保债务凭证（CLO）的基石投资者，该凭证包含了一项新颖的保障条款，将其人工智能相关债务的份额上限设定为15%。
By Scott Carpenter and Rachel Graf PGIM, the asset management arm of Prudential Financial Inc., was the anchor investor on a recent collateralized loan obligation that included a novel safeguard capping the share of its AI-related debt at 15%, according to people familiar with the matter.
这些因未获授权公开发言而要求匿名的知情人士表示，这笔规模达5亿美元的CLO由保险公司好事达（Allstate Corp.）于上周发行，是首个对与人工智能相关的抵押资产包含此类明确限制的产品。该交易由法国巴黎银行（BNP Paribas SA）安排撮合。
The $500 million CLO, issued last week by insurer Allstate Corp., was the first to contain such an explicit restriction on collateral tied to AI, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The transaction was arranged by BNP Paribas SA.
PGIM信贷部证券化产品联席主管埃德温·维尔切斯（Edwin Wilches）表示，该公司正与其他经办机构合作推进具有类似限制的交易，但这些发行计划尚未最终敲定。
Edwin Wilches, co-head of securitized products at PGIM Credit, said that the firm is working with other managers on deals with a similar restriction, but those offerings haven’t been finalized yet.
维尔切斯指出，目前人工智能相关债务在整个1.4万亿美元的市场中所占份额约为2%或3%，比例尚小，暂不足为虑。但他同时表示，随着大型科技公司在人工智能研发上投入创纪录的资金，实现CLO投资者青睐的多元化将变得更加困难。
The current share of AI-related debt bundled up in the $1.4 trillion market is somewhere around 2% or 3%, too small to be a concern, according to Wilches. But as Big Tech companies spend record sums on AI development, achieving the diversification that CLO investors favor will get more difficult, he said.
他在接受采访时表示：“包括我们在内的许多CLO投资者都在未雨绸缪，思考‘我们如何才能确保不会在各项投资中无意间承担意外的人工智能风险？’。即使你的CLO没有对数据中心的直接风险敞口，在经济下行时，你仍可能遭受超出预期的损失，因为人工智能融资已在信贷和股票市场中无处不在。”
“Many CLOs investors, including ourselves, are looking ahead and thinking, ‘How can we make sure we don’t inadvertently have unexpected AI risk across our investments?” he said in an interview.“Even if you don’t have explicit exposure to data centers in your CLO, you could still experience greater than expected losses in a downturn as AI financing has become ubiquitous across credit and equity markets.”
尽管如果人工智能热潮消退，数据中心和芯片融资债务无疑是受冲击最大的领域，但在经济下行时，即使是对该技术缺乏直接敞口的公司也可能遭受池鱼之殃。例如，如果数据中心未能如预期般扩张，监管电网的公用事业公司可能会受到牵连。
While data center and chip financing debt are arguably the most exposed if the AI boom falters, even companies with little direct exposure to the technology could become collateral damage in a downturn. For example, utilities that oversee electrical grids could suffer if data center expansion doesn’t materialize.
根据 PGIM 的观点，传统的行业集中度限制措施并不足以揭示那些隐藏在背后的关联性。该公司开发了一套评估框架，用于衡量贷款与人工智能（AI）行业的关联程度，并将该框架应用于各类资产支持证券（CLO）中的数百笔贷款。据 Wilches 介绍，如果贷款的关联度超过 15%，那么该资产支持证券就无法再接受任何与 AI 相关的债务。
Traditional limits on industry concentration aren’t sufficient to capture those hidden correlations, PGIM says. It developed a framework to score loans for their degree of connection to the AI industry and applies it to each of the hundreds of them in a CLO. If the score is over 15%, the CLO wouldn’t be able to accept any more AI-related debt, according to Wilches.
近期，债务投资者对 AI 相关风险的担忧日益加剧，这一情绪体现在垃圾债券的风险溢价上升至五个月以来的最高水平。据彭博社上周报道，甲骨文公司（Oracle）计划在新墨西哥州租赁一个大型数据中心，但该公司表示如果项目延期，可能会推迟租金支付，这进一步加剧了投资者的担忧。
Debt investors have grown more antsy about AI exposure recently, a sentiment reflected by junk-bond risk premiums climbing to their highest level in five months. Those fears were amplified when Oracle Corp., which is set to lease a massive data center in New Mexico, told the developer that it could put off rent payments if the project is delayed, Bloomberg reported last week.
尽管存在这些风险，但人工智能产业的繁荣仍有可能在未来几年成为资产支持证券市场的主要增长动力。美国银行（Bank of America）的策略师们上周表示，资产支持证券中对芯片和数据中心相关贷款的敞口可能会从目前的约 45 亿美元增加到 1000 亿美元。
Notwithstanding the risks, the AI boom could become a major growth engine for the asset-backed securities market in coming years. Strategists at Bank of America Corp. said last week that CLO exposure to chip and data center term loans could reach $100 billion, up from roughly $4.5 billion now.