Not even the world’s biggest technology companies—not Amazon.com, not Microsoft or Meta Platforms—are prepared to foot the bill with only their own cash. The massive equity investments in private companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic don’t come close to this Industrial Revolution-size cost. “The numbers are like nothing any of us who have been in this business for 25 years have seen,” says Matt McQueen, who oversees global credit, securitized products and municipal banking and markets at Bank of America Corp. “You have to turn over all avenues to make this work.”