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Corporate bond buyers have grown more selective amid a surge in debt issuance tied to AI infrastructure spending, raising lending standards and scrutinizing credit quality more closely. Investors are becoming pickier about which AI-focused companies and deals they will fund, signaling a shift from the broadly enthusiastic risk appetite that characterized earlier AI-boom lending. The tightening reflects concerns about sustainability of the AI capex cycle and the creditworthiness of companies racing to build out infrastructure without proven business models.