A global AI-debt selloff is spreading to Canada as a wave of deals by Alphabet Inc. and other tech titans flood the small market, amplifying the country’s exposure to foreign credit swings.

Sales of maple bonds, or debt sold by global companies in Canadian dollars, have soared to a record C$52 billion ($37 billion) this year, more than double the previous mark set in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The issuance has been led by firms funding artificial intelligence ambitions, including Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet.

The AI-linked bonds are selling off faster than the broader Canadian investment grade market and having ripple effects on other credits. Amazon’s 30-year Canadian dollar bond is indicated at about 164 basis points above government benchmarks, more than 50 basis points wider than when the note was sold in June, according to Bloomberg data. Canada’s main investment-grade index has widened about 10 basis points over the same period.

So far this year, a gauge of maple bonds has returned just 0.47% to Nov. 2, less than half the 1.2% gain in the broader corporate bond index. Amazon and Alphabet are now among the most heavily-weighted bonds in the maple index.

The declines in AI-linked bonds reflect supply indigestion as the market approaches the limits of how much debt it can absorb, with sales at records in the US and Canada. There has also been a broader risk-off move in equity and high-yield data center bonds that has spilled over into investment-grade credit.

For maple bonds, the sheer size of these new deals can have a disproportionate impact on the small market. Amazon’s C$14 billion deal — the largest corporate bond sale ever in Canadian dollars — catapulted the first-time seller into a top-10 issuer in Canada in a single day. Tech firms had little weight in Canadian bond indexes prior to this year.

The enormous cost of building data centers has transformed the industry into capital-intensive businesses with massive borrowing needs. That’s pushing more of the AI risks into credit markets. As US investors fill up on AI-related debt, borrowers are venturing further into markets such as Canada and Europe, where demand has remained strong as investors look for diversification.

Alphabet raised €6 billion ($6.7 billion) in its second euro bond sale this year, offering considerably higher yields than in its transaction in May after concerns over the pace of AI spending drove a credit-market selloff. Oracle Corp. sold $10 billion of bonds on Monday, while Meta Platforms Inc. is eyeing at least $20 billion from a potential debt offering in multiple currencies.

Foreign borrowers have been seeing slightly better pricing and higher demand ever since the main Canadian credit index began including maple bonds last year.

Most reverse Yankees — US corporate debt raised in currencies other than the greenback — are driven by issuers’ needs to diversify their investor base and use all financing channels available, according to Dominique Toublan, head of US credit strategy at Barclays Plc. Pricing advantages come and go based on currency moves and relative demand, and isn’t a structural saving, Toublan said.

The maple boom isn’t limited to hyperscalers. Walmart Inc. sold a C$5 billion bond last month, in the fourth-largest investment-grade bond sale in Canadian history. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., AT&T Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. all raised more than C$2 billion this year. U.S. Bancorp raised C$1 billion this week, tapping the loonie market for the first time in more than two decades.

“As Canada becomes a more consistent provider of capital for investment-grade companies in the US, these large companies will want to make sure that they’ve got some portion of their portfolio and exposure in this market,” Alan Tannenbaum, chief executive officer of BMO Capital Markets, said in an interview.

Toronto-Dominion Bank is the top arranger of maple bond sales this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The bank’s capital markets business saw a 25% jump in revenue growth in the third quarter, helped in part by higher underwriting fees.

Maple bonds accounted for about 29% of Canadian-dollar corporate debt sales this year, up from 10% in 2025, according to Bloomberg data. This means Canada is more exposed to global credit swings than ever before.

“The increasing prevalence of maples in our market increases the sensitivity of the Canadian credit market to international developments,” said Etienne Bordeleau, a portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners LP.