SpaceX’s $25 billion foray into debt markets appeared to be well received by bond markets last week, with huge demand for the offering.

But one of the biggest-ever AI bond issuances, less than two weeks after SpaceX’s IPO, has highlighted the group’s intense financing needs, capital spending plans and future refinancing obligations — and posed a diversification challenge for investors.

The group tapped debt markets on June 22, announcing a senior unsecured notes offering, with sources telling CNBC that the company was looking to raise $20 billion, which was then increased to $25 billion. The company said it would use the net proceeds to “repay the outstanding borrowings under its bridge loan facility in full, to pay related fees and expenses, and any remaining amount for general corporate purposes.”

SpaceX received nearly $90 billion worth of orders, people familiar with the fundraising previously told CNBC. They asked not to be named because the details are private.

But the move appeared to unnerve equity investors, with SpaceX falling more than 13% for the week after a strong post-IPO run.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said SpaceX will increasingly have to “work hard to make itself heard,” adding there are plenty of offerings from more profitable concerns that can steal the limelight.

“Equity investors are one thing, but bond guys are the grown-ups in the room,” Beauchamp told CNBC via email. “SpaceX might find it has its work cut out for it, but I suspect the market can absorb the issuance overall.”

“The timing certainly isn’t great, but we have seen brief bouts of panic like this before, and the wagon tends to roll onwards in the end.”

Christopher Della Fave, senior vice president, capital markets at Post Oak Group, said: “Two weeks after the largest IPO in history, SpaceX is already tapping debt markets while carrying a $5 billion net loss and capex that more than doubled year over year.”

The best government bond market may be outside the United States.

Allspring Global Investments’ George Bory is pushing clients toward countries whose central banks are raising interest rates or have different inflation dynamics.

“Bond markets everywhere have rushed to price inflation. Places like the UK, certainly across Europe, even places like Australia — we’ve seen a material run-up in central bank tightening expectations,” he told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “Now, some of that’s been delivered on already. The ECB raised rates just a few weeks ago. The expectation is they will do a bit more. But unless the Fed is going to validate those moves, they’re going to have to move at a slower pace than perhaps what’s priced in.”

Bory works as chief investment strategist in fixed income at Allspring — an asset management firm primarily focused on fixed income, money markets, and stocks. According to Allspring’s website, clients range from consultants and financial advisors to corporations and financial institutions.

“Short to intermediate duration global government developed market bonds [are] not a bad spot to be, especially for those central banks that are really tethered to inflation,” he said. “If they’re going to move aggressively, that will help bond investors. And so, adding that international duration … mixing it with some U.S. duration. Now we’re playing different rate cycles, and that works really, really nicely.”

The Fed hasn’t hiked rates in the U.S. since July 2023. The CME Group’s FedWatch gauge as of late Friday shows a 78% chance the Fed will hike rates in December. The odds dipped to 68% in January 2027.

Meanwhile, Bory highlights the European Central Bank’s move earlier this month. The ECB raised its rates 25 basis points to 2.25% on June 11 — the first rate hike since Sept. 2023.

Steve Laipply, the global co-head of iShares Fixed Income ETFs at BlackRock, also sees advantages for investors going abroad. He points to fixed-income securities issued in Europe that offer lower risk and higher yields.

“Many of our clients, many bond investors, [are] very US-centric,” Bory added. “It’s a big world out there, you know. The global bond market is massive, and diversifying both your duration, your credit risk, and even your security selection can do … good things for your portfolio.”

Artificial intelligence is giving tech investors an entirely new reason to pay attention to the Federal Reserve.

For years, megacap tech companies with hefty balance sheets have been able to shrug off rising rates, which tend to weigh more heavily on smaller, less-profitable peers.

But companies that were once cash cows are depleting reserves and leveraging debt in their ambitious data center buildouts. That’s making the group much more exposed to the cost of borrowing.

“Tech investors are not as used to looking at rates,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer of One Point BFG Wealth Partners, said in an interview. “All of a sudden tech investors need to listen to what Kevin Warsh has to say, they need to start paying attention to what the inflation stats are and how the U.S. Treasury market responds to it.”

Warsh held his first press conference as Fed chairman on Wednesday. The central bank indicated the possibility of a rate hike in 2026, which sparked a sell-off in equities and an increase in rates. The 10-year yield is trading near 4.45%.

Higher rates have always had an outsized impact on smaller tech companies, as investors value them based on future profits. When yields spike and the so-called “risk-free rate” rises, investors discount future cash flows, making them worth less today.

The effect of rising rates is now moving upstream. That’s because tech’s hyperscalers are engaged in a high-speed race to build out AI infrastructure, with Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta projected to deploy a combined $750 billion this year, up more than 80% from 2025.

A big piece of that expansion is being funded by debt, which becomes a more difficult sell if rates are rising. Nvidia, Oracle, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta are turning to the debt market to the tune of tens of billions of dollars each.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar has pointed to an ability to leverage debt markets as one motivation to go public. Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two sources familiar with the matter, that bankers for SpaceX, which debuted on the Nasdaq last week, are preparing to ​meet investors about a bond offering of at least $20 billion.

“It’s underappreciated,” said Jeff Kilburg, CEO of KKM Financial, adding that there’s an “insatiable demand” for AI-related funding. “Tech leadership is embracing debt. It’s the perfect recipe for these AI folks who feel comfortable in what they want to borrow, and spend.”

Tech giants need the money as some of them deplete their cash reserves they’ve spent years building up. Goldman Sachs recently noted that capex as a percentage of cash flow is at the highest level since the dot-com era. The firm also expects that capex this year will be closer to $920 billion, and says analyst estimates have been “too conservative” each…

India is doubling down on measures aimed at attracting foreign portfolio investments, as capital outflows hit a record high.

The government on Friday announced that it has exempted foreign investors and ​the Bank for International Settlements — a global financial institution owned by central banks— from income tax on any interest or capital gains.

The exemption will take effect from ​April 1, 2026, ​as per the government’s release.

Foreign investors face 12.5% long-term capital gains tax on listed ​shares and bonds held for more than ​12 months, ⁠and a 20% withholding tax on interest earned from government bonds.

In its monetary policy Friday, the Reserve Bank of India also announced that it was expanding the bouquet of government securities for non-resident investors to park funds while also removing limits on “short-term investment, concentration, and individual securities” for foreign portfolio investors.

All these measures, along with numerous trade deals India has entered into, will allow for a “much better BOP (balance of payment) this year,” than what would have been otherwise, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in a press conference on Friday.

The central bank also said that the limits for investment in stocks, without registration with India’s capital market regulator, are being increased for non-resident Indians and those holding overseas citizenship of India.

Since the start of the year, the sell-off by foreign investors in Indian securities has intensified, particularly in stocks. Foreign investors have sold Indian equities worth $27.6 billion since January, compared with a total of $18.9 billion in 2025, per data from the Indian depository NSDL.

These sell-offs, coupled with the rising import bill due to the surge in global oil prices, have weighed on the Indian rupee, putting it among the worst-performing currencies in Asia.

The moves easing capital inflows will help the rupee, which has been mostly falling due to the strong currency outflows, Krishna Bhimavarapu, APAC economist at State Street Global Advisors, told CNBC.

He added that this is a “step in the right direction,” and the announcement has come at a “very good time.” On a year-to-date basis, the rupee has fallen by more than 6%, LSEG data shows.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is compiling a supplementary budget to help households with the cost of living, but it’s also created skepticism about whether she can stick to her promises about debt issuance.

The budget was largely in line with market expectations, at about 3 trillion yen ($19 billion), but comes as Japan still struggles with higher energy prices, rising subsidy costs, and a weak yen.

The budget also marks a reversal from her earlier position that extra spending was not needed. She also said the total bond issuance for the calendar year of 2026 would remain unchanged from the original budget plan, according to Bloomberg.

Takaichi has sought to dispel worries in the bond market, saying that the extra spending would be financed by issuing deficit-covering bonds. But the 10-year Japanese sovereign bond yield rose to 2.809% on May 20, its highest since 1996, after reports that the government may issue fresh debt to fund the extra budget.

“Bond markets are a lot of things, but they’re not stupid,” said Jesper Koll, expert director at Tokyo based financial services firm Monex Group. “You cannot increase spending without increasing debt.”

Takaichi’s use of the calendar-year time frame has gotten the attention of Japan watchers.

“Nobody in Japan has ever made policy on the basis of the calendar year,” Koll said, noting that historically the country’s fiscal calendar ends March 31. “If there ever is a red flag, that is a red flag.”

In addition to the 10-year’s move to four-decade highs, the 30-year yield has moved above 4%, reflecting heightened concern over not only the fiscal risks but also inflation pressures.

“Recent developments — including continued uncertainty in the Middle East, elevated commodity prices, and rising fuel subsidy outlays — have contributed to bond market concerns about Japan’s fiscal position this year,” Louis Chua, equity research analyst for Asia at Julius Baer, said.

Investors might have had more confidence, Koll said, if the government had openly announced a 10 trillion yen budget funded by 10 trillion yen of bonds, rather than a smaller package paired with assurances of no additional issuance.

“The first one, actually, people believe,” Koll said. “The second one, nobody believes.”

However, not all analysts see the package as disruptive.

State Street Investment Management remains “structurally bullish on Japan, both on the economy and markets,” according to APAC economist Krishna Bhimavarapu. “The supplementary budget looks less like broad stimulus and more like targeted cushioning for households facing…

U.S. treasury bonds typically occupy a special place in an investor’s portfolio — the asset class against which all other market risk is measured. But a surge in long-dated yields is forcing investors to rethink this assumption.

The yield on the 10-year treasury recently surged to a level it had not seen in over a year, while the 30-year treasury yield this week hit a level it has not seen since 2007 — right before the financial crisis. The moves are being driven by geopolitical conflict and an oil price shock that have rekindled inflation and resulted in a growing consensus that the Federal Reserve will not lower rates at the next meeting, the first since new Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh was confirmed with a mandate from President Trump to bring rates down. In fact, traders are now betting there will be no interest rate cut over the remainder of 2026, and that a rate hike is becoming more likely. Warsh was being sworn in by Trump on Friday.

The shift in bond market assumptions is a wake-up call for investors in an asset class that has long been called a “safe haven” due to bonds’ predictable income and guarantee of the return against maturity. HSBC wrote in a note this week that U.S. treasuries are now in a “danger zone.”

On Friday, the 10-year U.S. treasury yield was at 4.57% while the 30-year treasury bond was up to 5.08%.

JoAnne Bianco, senior investment strategist at BondBloxx Investment Management, voiced similar concerns on CNBC’s “ETF Edge” podcast this week. “You are calling it the risk-free rate. It is not risk free. There is a lot of risk associated with this,” she said.

“Now the next likely action is they are going to be raising rates at some point, potentially starting later this year,” she said.

The bond market action leads Bianco to make two recommendations for fixed income-focused investors. While a higher yield offers investors more income, it also punishes bond prices. Bianco suggests investors focus on the intermediate part of the treasuries curve, specifically the 5-year to 7-year range. That part of the bond market lets investors “step in at these higher rates” without the price volatility that has punished holders of long-dated bonds, she said.

She also recommends investors look to opportunities in the bond market that reflect the underlying strength of the U.S. economy and corporate earnings within the investment grade and high yield markets. While it is true that corporate bonds…

U.S. Treasury yields were mixed on Friday as Kevin Warsh took the reins at the Federal Reserve. The volatility followed a week that had earlier seen borrowing costs rise to multi-year highs in response to renewed concerns about inflation.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note — the key benchmark for U.S. government borrowing — fell less than 1 basis point to 4.576%.

The 2-year Treasury note yield, which more closely tracks short-term Federal Reserve interest rate policy, traded up more than 4 basis points to 4.134%. The longer-dated 30-year Treasury bond yield fell more than 3 basis points to 5.079%. 

One basis point is equal to 0.01%, and yields and prices move in opposite directions.

The 30-year Treasury yield briefly climbed above 5.19% earlier this week, reaching its highest level since 2007, before easing on Thursday. 

The volatility in the bond market came as U.S. President Donald Trump swore in Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday. So-called bond vigilantes have eyed the appointment closely, looking for signs of whether Warsh will heed Trump’s call to further cut rates despite inflationary risks.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iran have signaled progress in talks to end the war, but the combatants remain at loggerheads over Tehran’s enriched uranium stockpile and tolls on the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said there were “good signs” that an agreement to end the conflict is in sight, but warned any such deal would be “unfeasible” if Iran pursues measures to permanently control shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

“No one in the world is in favor of a tolling system. It can’t happen [and] it would be unacceptable,” Rubio told reporters in Miami, Florida.

— CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Jeff Cox also contributed to this report.