Hint: It’s not the stockholders—it’s the lenders with a headache.
AI data centers are popping up faster than Starbucks in the 2000s. Every tech giant wants its own compute temple, but here’s the twist: most of this grand “AI infrastructure revolution” isn’t funded by profits or equity hype. It’s debt—cleverly packaged, occasionally hidden, and sometimes so complex even the accountants need a map.
Meta’s new $27 billion Hyperion data center in Louisiana isn’t on Meta’s balance sheet. That’s because it technically belongs to a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) funded mostly by Blue Owl Capital and friends.
Meta keeps 20%, gets to brag about building “the largest AI hub,” and pockets a few billion upfront. Blue Owl gets to lend billions for an asset it doesn’t fully control—like financing a mansion but letting Zuckerberg live in it rent-controlled for life. For Meta, it’s financial yoga: full flexibility, zero strain. For Blue Owl, it’s a high-yield headstand.
Oracle is gearing up to issue over $50 billion in debt for its AI cloud expansion. The company’s new motto could be: “If you build it (on leverage), they will compute.” The debt funds massive data campuses leased back to Oracle—same trick, different logo. Debt investors get 6-7% yields; Oracle gets to grow without messing up its credit rating. Everyone’s happy… unless AI demand cools faster than a liquid-cooled GPU.
SoftBank is reportedly borrowing $5 billion by pledging its Arm shares as collateral. Think of it as pawning your Rolex to buy a bigger casino chip. Sure, Arm’s stock is up 30-plus %, so it feels safe—for now. But if the AI hype train ever hits a bump, margin calls could make SoftBank’s spreadsheets look like a thriller novel.
Here’s the irony: all these tech giants are riding all-time-high valuations, while their lenders—Blue Owl Capital, Ares Management, FS KKR Capital—are showing negative returns year-to-date. In other words, the borrowers are rich on paper, and the lenders are nursing a hangover from funding their parties. The credit market has become the quiet partner footing the bill for AI’s loudest boom.
The AI boom isn’t just about GPUs and ChatGPTs—it’s about leverage.
If AI compute demand slows or construction overruns hit, these debt structures could unwind faster than an LLM hallucination.
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