The Federal Reserve's semiannual Financial Stability Report, released on November 13, puts AI at the top of Wall Street's worries for the first time. Between September and October, staff at the New York Fed surveyed 23 market contacts at banks, broker-dealers, investment funds and advisory firms; about 87% named AI a salient risk to US financial stability, up from 50% in the May survey. The worries cluster in three places: cyberattack risks tied to AI itself, complex financing arrangements built around AI investment, and the chance that an AI earnings slowdown triggers a broad market correction.
Computing debt quintupled in five years
The hardest numbers in the report are about debt. In the first ten months of 2026, debt issued for advanced computing infrastructure passed $680 billion, roughly five times the $130 billion issued in all of 2023. Borrowers include large technology companies, data-center developers and AI cloud providers, with the money going to chip purchases, facility construction and power supply. Views on AI valuations have split: enthusiasm has lifted share prices, but if earnings fail to keep up, the correction is likely to start where valuations are highest. This financing chain is not confined to the United States: SoftBank's $65 billion bet on OpenAI and the Apollo financing behind it show the same 'borrow to buy compute' logic from another angle.
This is not the Fed's own judgment
One line needs drawing first: the ranking reflects the views of the market contacts surveyed, and the Fed states in the report that the survey results do not represent the views of the Federal Reserve or the New York Fed. The survey ran in September and October, before Nvidia's leadership turmoil, so the 'top risk' verdict has no direct connection to this week's resignation of Nvidia's CEO. For ordinary investors, the report matters as a signal: AI has moved from a 'growth story' to the first line of the risk list, and in the coming earnings season, AI companies' earnings growth and banks' disclosures of their technology and data-center exposures will draw more attention than before.
What to watch next
The next Financial Stability Report is not due until May 2027, leaving three things to watch in the meantime: whether AI-related debt issuance keeps expanding; whether big tech's next quarterly earnings can support lofty valuations; and whether the Fed picks up this risk judgment in public remarks. The report offers no policy recommendations and names no company — it simply lays out the market's own worries as they are.
