Contact us Account access
Your Dashboard
Back to role selection

Select your role to continue or return to the Natixis Investment Managers homepage

Financial professional

I am a wealth manager or financial advisor managing investments on behalf of my clients.

Select role

Institutional investor

I represent institutions searching for investment capabilities and solutions.

Select role

Individual investor

I manage my own investments.

Select role

Select your local site for products and services by region

Americas

Asia Pacific

Europe

Location not listed?

Products

Products

Investment capabilities​

Solutions

Solutions

From our experts

Insights

Insights

In focus

Investor sentiment

Resources

Fund resources

Education

About

Who we are​

Press

Careers

Contact us

Fixed income

Technology’s silent takeover of index risk

October 20, 2026 - 2 min
Michael Gladchun
Loomis, Sayles & Company

Key takeaways

  • Technology’s influence extends beyond its benchmark weight. While technology represents just over 3% of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index by market value, it accounts for a much larger share of overall credit risk.
  • AI-related issuance is changing benchmark risk exposure. As hyperscalers finance data centers and digital infrastructure, passive investors are becoming increasingly exposed to technology-sector credit fundamentals.
  • A broader opportunity set may exist outside the index. Active managers can be selective in how they access technology-related credit risk and may find attractive relative value opportunities beyond traditional benchmark constituents.

The rapid growth in AI investment and hyperscaler capital spending has been one of the dominant themes in the credit markets. Much of the discussion has focused on the sheer amount of financing required to build data centers and related infrastructure. But there is another question worth asking: How is this wave of issuance changing the composition and risk profile of traditional bond benchmarks?

Consider the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index (the Agg), one of the industry’s most widely used fixed-income benchmarks. On the surface, the change in technology exposure appears relatively modest. After reclassifying Amazon (previously retail), Meta (media), and, more recently, SpaceX (communications) to technology issuers, the technology industry has increased from 2.24% of the index’s market value in 2019 to 3.17% today. That is meaningful growth, but hardly a dramatic transformation of the benchmark.

The fact is that market value tells only part of the story. Technology issuers tend to have longer-duration debt, and technology spreads today are wider than the average spread of the Agg. As a result, the sector represents a disproportionately large share of the benchmark’s spread risk.

One way to see this is through DTS (duration times spread), which provides a useful measure of credit risk by incorporating both spread level and duration.

Technology’s share of index OAS tells a similar story, rising from 4.17% to 10.31%. That distinction tends to matter for investors. As technology and hyperscaler issuance grows, passive exposure to the index is becoming increasingly dependent on, and concentrated in, the credit performance of the technology sector. As such, the index is taking on technology risk faster than its market value weight alone would suggest.

For active managers, we think this changing landscape creates opportunities. Active portfolios are not required to replicate the index’s growing technology exposure and can be selective about how much risk to take and where.

Just as importantly, a significant portion of data center financing is occurring outside the index, including through 144A structures. In some cases, these securities may offer more attractive compensation for comparable underlying risks than the unsecured corporate debt represented in traditional indexes.

We believe the growth of AI infrastructure financing is therefore doing more than creating a new source of bond supply. It is changing where credit risk resides in the index and expanding the opportunity set outside it. For active managers with the ability to evaluate risk across broader markets, that growing dispersion may be an important source of relative value.

Read important disclosures

Investment ideas

Discover what’s next

Turn our insights into actionable portfolio strategies.

Contact us

Related insights

View all fixed income
VIDEO
The new credit continuum
Explore how converging public and private credit markets are reshaping investor opportunities.
The credit opportunity in the AI boom
How the AI buildout is transforming credit markets and creating new opportunities for investors.
VIDEO
Beyond the hike: Why Fed credibility and disinflation matter now
A credible Fed, a contained hiking cycle, and a disinflation trend could set the stage for new opportunities in fixed income.

The views and opinions are as of October 1, 2026, and may change based on market and other conditions. This material is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. There can be no assurance that developments will transpire as forecasted. Actual results may vary. Although Natixis Investment Managers believes the information provided in this material to be reliable, including that from third-party sources, it does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of such information.

​Fixed-income securities may carry one or more of the following risks: credit, interest rate (as interest rates rise, bond prices usually fall), inflation, and liquidity.

The Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index is a broad-based index that covers the US-dollar-denominated, investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable bond market of SEC-registered securities. The index includes bonds from the Treasury, government-related, corporate, mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, and collateralized mortgage-backed securities sectors.

References to specific securities, sectors, or industries are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice.

Unlike passive investments, there are no indexes that an active investment attempts to track or replicate. Thus, the ability of an active investment to achieve its objectives will depend on the effectiveness of the investment manager.​

NIM-10062026-wt0nd7a1