Peter Smith
⬤ OpenAI's infrastructure partners are carrying about $96 billion in debt to keep up with the company's explosive growth. Oracle, SoftBank, CoreWeave, Blue Owl and several financial backers have borrowed heavily to build out the data centers and computing power OpenAI needs. The debt is spread across companies racing to deliver AI-specific infrastructure at scale.
⬤ About $30 billion is already sitting on the balance sheets of SoftBank, Oracle and CoreWeave. Blue Owl Capital and Crusoe added another $28 billion in loans. On top of that, Oracle and Vantage Data Centers are negotiating roughly $38 billion more with their banking partners. These loans are tied directly to OpenAI's infrastructure demands, showing how suppliers are betting big on future AI revenue while costs pile up faster than income.
⬤ Many of these loans run through special-purpose vehicles that push default risk onto lenders instead of the borrowing companies. It's a setup that lets suppliers take on more debt while protecting their core operations if things go south. The financing model reveals how complex and risky the infrastructure funding game has become in the AI boom.
⬤ The stakes matter because $96 billion in leveraged bets on one customer can ripple across credit markets and the broader tech sector. If revenue doesn't catch up to spending, banks and private lenders may rethink how they price loans to hyperscale compute providers. The debt load also highlights a fundamental tension in AI infrastructure—demand is skyrocketing, but profits aren't keeping pace, which could reshape valuations and capital flows across the industry.
Peter Smith
