Galaxy Digital Plans $3.5B High-Yield Bond Sale to Expand Helios AI Data Center in West Texas

Galaxy Digital is set to tap the U.S. high-yield market for the first time, preparing a $3.5 billion junk-bond offering to finance a major buildout of its Helios AI data center campus in West Texas. Proceeds are expected to support construction as well as debt-service reserves tied to the project. The transaction would mark a shift in Galaxy's funding playbook. The company has historically leaned on convertible notes, and the move into high-yield bonds underscores a broader push to scale its AI and infrastructure platform alongside its crypto business. The planned sale also lands as developers increasingly use speculative-grade debt to fund AI-focused data centers; Bloomberg data show about $28 billion of U.S. junk-bond proceeds have been raised this year for similar projects. According to a person familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg, the offering is expected to price on July 23. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are leading the sale. The issuance would consist of five-year notes sold by a Galaxy subsidiary. Under the proposed structure, the issuer would start repaying 4% of original principal annually beginning 10 months after construction is completed. Galaxy said the funds would help finance a portion of the Helios Data Center Campus in Dickens County, about 60 miles east of Lubbock, and provide debt-service reserves. The company has regulatory approval for up to 1.6 gigawatts of power at Helios for AI and high-performance computing workloads. The first phase is already completed, and construction on the next phase is scheduled to begin in 2027. Commercial momentum has picked up. Earlier this month, Galaxy said CoreWeave signed 15-year capacity leases at Helios, which Galaxy estimates could generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue once the campus is fully operational. The announcement follows a similar large-scale AI-infrastructure financing last month, when an Applied Digital subsidiary raised about $1.59 billion in the U.S. junk-bond market to expand CoreWeave capacity in North Dakota. Galaxy is also strengthening its West Texas profile. The company signed a 15-year agreement with Texas Tech University to rename the school's football venue "Galaxy Stadium" starting with the 2026 season. The partnership designates Galaxy as Texas Tech Athletics' official digital assets and data center partner and includes planned collaboration on AI initiatives, workforce training and NIL opportunities; financial terms were not disclosed. Beyond Helios, Galaxy has broadened its activity across crypto and regulated services this year. It launched a $5 million Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative to support post-quantum cryptography and related tooling, citing research that about 6.9 million BTC could be exposed if future quantum computers break current cryptographic protections. In May, the firm expanded regulated offerings through GalaxyOne Prime NY after securing a BitLicense and a Money Transmission License from the New York Department of Financial Services. Galaxy has also announced plans for a $100 million crypto-focused hedge fund. The planned $3.5 billion sale would be a major financing milestone as Galaxy pivots from convertible debt toward high-yield issuance to scale Helios and pursue surging demand for AI compute. If priced as expected, the deal would add substantial capital to one of the company's largest long-term infrastructure bets and highlight the growing role of the U.S. high-yield market in funding AI data center development.