AI Is Weighing on the Software Debt Market

It’s not just software stocks that have been hammered by investor anxieties about the threat AI poses to software. Prices that investors are willing to pay for syndicated bank debt to software firms dropped nearly 7% in March from the previous year, according to Pitchbook, while prices for similar loans in other sectors fell fractionally.

That big price drop is a sign that investor demand for debt from riskier software companies has plunged amid AI disruption fears. If these trends continue, software firms will have to pay a lot more to refinance their debt than they’re currently paying. About 20% of syndicated software loans are set to come due in 2028, estimates PitchBook.