Investment giants KKR & Co. and Blackstone Inc. are leading a combined $17 billion investment in the natural gas industry, marking a massive push of private funds into a sector helping to quench artificial intelligence firms’ relentless thirst for energy.

For years, private credit firms have focused on financing private equity buyouts or closely held companies that had limited access to capital. Now, they are zeroing in on their next frontier: Large public companies that want to diversify their funding mix.

Wineries, booze distributors and distilleries are turning to private credit for financing, especially as tariffs and a decline in drinking habits bring more risk to the alcohol industry.

Private credit firms are seeing an opportunity to finance everything from public transit systems to local utilities as the federal government and banks pull back on funding.

Blackstone Inc. has won approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch its newest private credit fund, one of the latest efforts to give individuals access to assets that are mostly backed by institutions.

Blackstone Inc.’s main private credit fund stormed the investment-grade bond market to raise a combined $1.5 billion in a single day, adding to the rush of direct lenders trying to lock in cheaper financing costs.

At a finance conference in London this summer, four senior investment bankers set about persuading the room that the $1.7-trillion private credit market isn’t a threat to Wall Street. Barely three months later, two of them have jumped ship to seek their fortunes in the upstart asset class.

Banks have found another way to fight back after private lenders have grabbed ever larger pieces of the lucrative business of financing leveraged buyouts.

Colm Kelleher whipped up a storm at the end of last year when the UBS Group AG chairman warned of a dangerous bubble in private credit.