News · techcrunch.com

Blackstone Jas Khaira says fears over AI - buildout debt are overblown

Blackstone's Jas Khaira, who leads its AI hub Blackstone N1 (BXN1) in San Francisco, said the firm is financing AI infrastructure through loans to data centers, investments in neoclouds and frontier models, with $1.3 trillion in assets under management. Its compute-financing model, pioneered with a $2.3 billion loan to CoreWeave in 2023, relies on customer contracts and GPUs as collateral, and BXN1 committed $5 billion to Crux AI. Khaira acknowledged that CoreWeave's debt has ballooned to about $50 billion and that credit spreads have widened, sending CoreWeave shares down more than 20% recently. Firmus cancelled its planned Australian IPO at a target valuation of roughly $30 billion because the market would not accept that price. Khaira still said AI companies' demand for compute continues to drive buildout, and downplayed the debt concerns.

Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.

Read the original on techcrunch.com ↗

Keywords

artificial intelligenceCoreWeavedata centerscredit

Open a keyword to see other news on the same topic.

Related tickers and likely impact

AMZN

▲ Likely positive

Amazon

Relevance: low

MarketUS stocks
SectorConsumer Discretionary
IndustryBroadline Retail
Market cap$2.7T
Close on 10/21/2026262.28
Change that session-0.13%
AMZN price, forecasts and signals →

GOOGL

▲ Likely positive

Alphabet Inc. (Class A)

Relevance: low

MarketUS stocks
SectorCommunication Services
IndustryInteractive Media & Services
Market cap$4.3T
Close on 10/21/2026334.67
Change that session-1.65%
GOOGL price, forecasts and signals →

META

▲ Likely positive

Meta Platforms

Relevance: low

MarketUS stocks
SectorCommunication Services
IndustryInteractive Media & Services
Market cap$1.9T
Close on 10/21/2026698.43
Change that session+0.60%
META price, forecasts and signals →

MSFT

▲ Likely positive

Microsoft

Relevance: low

MarketUS stocks
SectorInformation Technology
IndustrySystems Software
Market cap$4.0T
Close on 10/21/2026532.81
Change that session+0.18%
MSFT price, forecasts and signals →

NVDA

▲ Likely positive

Nvidia

Relevance: low

MarketUS stocks
SectorInformation Technology
IndustrySemiconductors
Market cap$5.2T
Close on 10/21/2026221.87
Change that session+2.49%
NVDA price, forecasts and signals →

Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.

Related news

  • Leveraged loan market takes on AI infrastructure debt

    Companies raising funds for hyperscale data centers are increasingly turning to the leveraged loan market, as collateralizing such deals appears to be the latest phase in AI infrastructure financing. Since April, issuers including CoreWeave, Lambda, Crusoe Energy Systems and Volta Infrastructure Holdings have launched data-center expansion loans. Institutional leveraged loan issuance backing data center infrastructure totals $13.2 billion year to date.

    Yahoo Finance·creditdata centersartificial intelligence
  • CoreWeave's business model explained: Why investors are worried

    The video likens CoreWeave to a landlord that borrowed heavily to buy 51 data centers and leases them to customers such as Microsoft and Meta. The speaker says it earned about $2.6 billion last quarter, roughly $1.5 billion after operating and capital costs, yet paid $640 million in debt repayments in the same period. Those payments are projected to rise by $300 million next year to $900 million, leaving the company about $626 million in the red after accounting for everything. Debt has grown to about $35 billion, with $10 billion due within 15 months against $5.5 billion in cash, while the company plans to spend around $6.4 billion on new data centers over the next three months. An online calculation cited in the video put the chance of default over the next three years at 55%, close to a coin flip.

    Yahoo Finance·• NVDA• MSFTCoreWeavedata centersdefault risk
  • AI debt concerns drive default insurance costs to record highs

    Insurance costs against defaults by technology companies reached record highs as investors grew concerned about debt financing the AI investment boom. Heavily indebted data center operators were hit hardest, as hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation raised expectations for higher interest rates. CoreWeave, a loss-making company owing nearly US$50 billion, saw its five-year CDS spreads surpass 1,100 basis points, implying a 64% default risk over five years versus about 30% a year earlier. Its shares lost nearly a fifth of their value in two days, while Anthropic's third-quarter revenue rose 45% from the previous quarter to $16.8 billion without easing concerns. Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid noted that capex is increasingly funded by debt rather than free cash flow, so credit price action deserves closer attention.

    memphissun.com·▼ AMZN▼ GOOGL▼ META▼ MSFTAI investmentcreditdata centers
  • AI credit worries send default insurance costs to record highs

    The cost of insuring against tech company defaults hit record highs on October 15 as investors grew worried about the debt financing the AI boom. Heavily indebted data center operators were hit hardest, as hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation and expected rate hikes raised doubts about whether AI investments can earn enough to service borrowing costs. CoreWeave, a loss-making company owing nearly US$50 billion, saw its five-year CDS spreads top 1,100 basis points and its 2031 bond yield reach 16 percent before easing to about 14 percent, while its shares lost nearly a fifth of their value in two days. Oracle's CDS approached 300 basis points, while Amazon, Alphabet and Meta hit record highs but rose more slowly. Anthropic's third-quarter revenue rose 45 percent to $16.8 billion, according to an investor, but did little to ease concerns.

    bignewsnetwork.com·▼ NVDA▼ AMZN▼ GOOGL▼ METAdefault riskAI investmentdata centers
  • CoreWeave Is Projected to Have a 6.3x Gross Leverage Ratio by Year End. The Market Is Worried About the Neocloud's Balance Sheet.

    CoreWeave's stock fell nearly 15.5% on Oct. 14 as investors worried about its debt-funded data center build-out, with higher bond yields raising borrowing costs. At the end of the second quarter, total debt was $27.6 billion against roughly $5 billion in shareholder equity. Analysts project debt rising to $47.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA reaching about $7.6 billion by year-end, a gross leverage ratio near 6.3x, and its 9.625% senior notes due 2032 fell below $80. The company reports a revenue backlog over $104 billion, but 65% of first-quarter revenue came from its top two customers, making it a riskier AI stock than hyperscalers like Microsoft.

    Yahoo Finance·▼ NVDACoreWeavebondsdata centers
  • Microsoft Pays Cash For AI. CoreWeave Borrows.

    Microsoft closed on Oct. 19 just 1.8% below its 52-week high set on Oct. 13, while CoreWeave sits 56.3% below its high set on Oct. 29, 2025. Microsoft funds its AI build-out from operations: it generated $182.9 billion of cash in the fiscal year to June 30, 2026, spent $115.9 billion on capital projects, and holds $19.8 billion more cash and short-term investments than debt. CoreWeave borrows to build: its debt rose from $6.3 billion to $51.6 billion in 21 months, its operating income covered none of its $1.9 billion interest bill, and its net debt of $46.1 billion exceeds its $33.7 billion market value. The article frames the gap as a difference in funding model rather than sales, and stresses that it is general education, not investment advice.

    Yahoo Finance·• MSFTartificial intelligenceMicrosoftCoreWeave

Related markets

US stocks →

Latest news

  • 3 reasons SpaceX could fall short of $1 trillion revenue goal

    Host Ejaaz Ahamadeen outlines three obstacles that could keep Elon Musk's SpaceX (SPCX) from reaching a $1 trillion revenue goal. First, capex of $35 billion to $40 billion raises funding questions, with Tesla's balance sheet cited at about $43 billion and rumors that Musk is seeking $30 billion to $50 billion before the Anthropic IPO. Second, moving from GB300 to Vera Rubin GPUs may prove technically harder, as the host doubts Jensen Huang's claim that the new chips take about 5 minutes to bring online and notes that next-gen GPUs have historically taken time to deploy. Third, revenue forecasts diverge sharply: JP Morgan projects $254 billion next year, while Musk's estimate is $500 billion to $1 trillion.

    Yahoo Finance·• TSLA
  • SpaceX Just Crushed Wall Street's Q3 Targets -- but a Potential Tesla Merger Is Even Bigger News

    SpaceX reported third-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.45 on sales of $14.58 billion, far above analyst averages of $0.13 and $12.72 billion. Revenue rose 161% year over year and net income swung to $4.4 billion from a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier; Starlink sales grew 69% to $5.25 billion, while the superintelligence segment rose about 830% to $7.56 billion. The company guided first-quarter 2027 sales to $33–37 billion, and Musk said he expects annual recurring revenue of $500 billion–$1 trillion by the end of next year. On the call, Musk said special committees had been formed to explore a merger with Tesla, that he could not take part due to conflicts, and that merging was a good idea, though shareholder approval equal to 50% of total shares would be a significant hurdle.

    Yahoo Finance·• TSLA
  • Blackstone's Jon Gray says CoreWeave can 'find a way through' financing pressure

    Blackstone COO Jon Gray told CNBC that CoreWeave, despite concerns about its massive debt, will “find a way through” its financing challenges and that its underlying business is strong. CoreWeave has about $51.6 billion in total debt, including roughly $35 billion in notes, bonds and loans, and its shares fell 3.55% Thursday and 14% over the past week as investors questioned how it will fund its data centers. Gray said demand for computing power is strong while supply is constrained, and that if neoclouds get through this phase, compute pricing is up 50%. Blackstone's third-quarter revenue of $3.22 billion missed the $3.28 billion expected, while adjusted EPS of $1.32 beat the $1.26 consensus; Gray called it a challenging quarter due to high energy prices and rising Treasury yields. He expects a strong fourth quarter and 2027, and IPOs to resume once markets calm.

    CNBC·
  • Chip stocks break a bear trap after a $2.6 trillion rout — here are the levels bulls need to hold

    The PHLX Semiconductor Index (^SOX) is down about 3% after dipping to 11,000, a support level that has rescued chip stocks twice since September, so the bear-trap rebound only holds if that floor does. Since Oct. 6, all 60 stocks in Yahoo Finance's chip basket have fallen, erasing about $2.7 trillion in market value; Lam Research and Applied Materials are each down nearly 30%, AMD nearly 20%, and Nvidia 9%. Lam fell despite record revenue because it said supply limits would cap its outlook and China sales would be “meaningfully down” in December. The Nasdaq 100 is down about 6% over the same period. The article flags 10,450–10,550 as the zone to watch if 11,000 breaks, and 12,600–12,700 as the level bulls must reclaim, while semiconductor ETFs saw record flows over the past week.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ NVDA
  • A New Mexico Judge Just Hit Meta With a $25 Billion Penalty

    On October 21, 2026, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion over misleading Facebook users about privacy in the Cambridge Analytica case, far above the FTC's $5 billion fine in 2019. Jurors found 26 of 29 statements misleading, and counting each statement per user or resident who saw it produced more than 43 million violations, with state law allowing up to $5,000 each; all the money goes to New Mexico schools. The judge said the conduct went to the heart of Facebook's core business and found that senior leaders, including Zuckerberg and Sandberg, misrepresented its privacy practices. Meta is appealing, has paid nothing, and interest keeps accruing, while the penalty equals about 2.5 times its $9.86 billion third-quarter net income.

    Yahoo Finance·▼ META
  • Meta is leading the way for hyperscalers, and don't sleep on the Tesla Cybercab

    In this Yahoo Finance segment, Brian Sozzi highlights Meta (META) unveiling a new class of stock that could serve as a blueprint for other hyperscalers, the view that investors are overlooking Tesla's (TSLA) vehicle, and bearish sentiment around CoreWeave (CRWV). He then interviews P&G CFO Andre Schulten about encouraging growth and whether everyday product use has hurt the company with consumers.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ META▲ TSLA

All news →

Get the briefing on Telegram or Zalo

Join the Upside Telegram channel or Zalo group for the Vietnam stocks and gold briefing at 8:00 and 19:00 (Vietnam time) on trading days, plus a weekly wrap on Saturday morning.