OpenAI Partners is taking on $96 billion in debt, highlighting the growing risks around the loss-making AI company
The companies that supply data centers, chips, and “computational” processing power to OpenAI have taken on about $96 billion in debt to fund their operations. According to an analysis of the Financial Times. The news highlights the AI sector’s increasing reliance on debt and its increasing reliance on loss-making AI startup OpenAI in particular.
Currently, the revenues generated by AI companies and many of the data center operators that are rapidly expanding to serve them are not large enough to cover their construction costs.
OpenAI has made $1.4 trillion in commitments to purchase the power and computing power it needs to fuel its operations in the future. But it previously revealed that it expects to achieve revenues of only $20 billion this year. and Recent analysis of HSBC Bank He concluded that even if the company generated more than $200 billion by 2030, it would still need to find $207 billion in additional financing to stay in business.
Here’s a Financial Times breakdown of the debt held by OpenAI partners:
- $30 billion already borrowed by SoftBank oracleAnd Core Wave.
- $28 billion in loans obtained by Blue All Capital and Cruzo.
- $38 billion is on the table in further talks with Oracle, Vantage and their banks.
- $96 billion total debt.
The increasing use of debt to finance AI is a relatively new development — before this year, most AI builds were funded with cash directly from the balance sheets of big tech companies, such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta.
How CoreWeave services its debt will be of particular interest to investors. The company announced $3.7 billion in current debt, $10.3 billion in non-current debt, and $39.1 billion in future lease agreements for data centers. In the third quarter earnings report. The company said it expects to generate just $5 billion in revenue this year, but has $56 billion in revenue.Revenue accumulation“Come on line.
All companies have been contacted for comment. CoreWeave declined to comment when contacted luck.
Separately, the Big Five Hyperscalers —Amazon, Google, dead, Microsoftand Oracle – took on $121 billion in new debt this year to fund their AI operations. According to Bank of America. This is more than four times the average level of debt ($28 billion) issued by these companies over the past five years.
A recent research note from Bank of America analysts Yuri Seliger and Seohyun Marie Lee said all the additional investment-grade corporate debt is having a material impact on credit markets.
“This week (the week before Thanksgiving) is typically the last week of the year with a big offering from IG. The 2025 offering ends the year strong,” they said. “We are tracking about $50 billion for this week and about $220 billion over the previous four weeks — about 70% above typical volume for this time of year.”
“This year… hyperscalers added another $63 billion. This suggests that the increase in supply this year is entirely explained by (debt-financed M&A deals) and hyperscaler activity.”
The growing supply of debt from technology companies is driving “spreads” — the extra interest yield demanded by debt buyers above the theoretical risk-free rate — in the credit default swap (CDS) market, according to Deutsche Bank. Credit default swaps act as a type of insurance policy on corporate debt, paying out holders if a creditor defaults. If yields on credit default swaps increase, this indicates that the market believes the probability of default has also risen.
“The moves have been notable: Oracle 5-year CDS have widened by about +60 basis points to 104 basis points since late September and CoreWeave by +280 basis points to about 640 basis points since September,” Deutsche’s Jim Reed said in a recent note.
“It is difficult to know yet whether this shift will have meaningful long-term implications,” he said, “but the past few weeks clearly represent a new phase of the AI boom — one in which investors are increasingly looking to hedge their risks, and one in which public credit markets are being called on to fund growing capital expenditure needs. It’s not just free cash flow for those with significant expansion anymore.”
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