CoreWeave has pioneered the neocloud boom by renting artificial-intelligence infrastructure to some of the biggest names in tech. But its reliance on private credit financing could be a looming issue.
Shares of Coreweave dropped 8.1% on Friday following a report from Business Insider that Blue Owl Capital had failed to secure $4 billion in debt financing for a data-center project in Lancaster, Pa., where CoreWeave is the anchor tenant.
CoreWeave announced the project last July, committing up to $6 billion in funding for the data center. In August, Blue Owl, Chirisa Technology Parks and Machine Investment Group formed a joint venture to provide an additional $4 billion of funding. But as Blue Owl began syndicating the debt financing to institutional investors, some lenders declined to participate and cited CoreWeave’s credit rating as a key reason, Business Insider reported.
CoreWeave has a B+ credit rating from S&P Global Ratings, meaning that the company’s debt is rated four notches below the investment-grade threshold.
CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator told Jim Cramer of CNBC that the data center is financed and on schedule. “It’s standard practice for capital allocators to evaluate a range of financing options when managing large-scale infrastructure projects, particularly in high-growth, capital-intensive sectors like AI,” Intrator said, adding that there has been no change to the project’s timeline.
“Under our agreement with CoreWeave, our sole obligation is to provide approximately $500 million of bridge financing through March 2026, and that commitment remains fully in place,” a representative from Blue Owl told MarketWatch. CoreWeave represents approximately 1% of Blue Owl’s real assets under management, the Blue Owl representative said.
Blue Owl has played a prominent role in financing data-center buildouts, offering more flexible terms and faster execution than traditional banks. These deals often involve a special-purpose vehicle which Blue Owl leases back to the tenant.
Most notably, Blue Owl entered into a $27 billion joint venture with Meta Platforms last October for the tech giant’s Hyperion data center in Louisiana. But unlike CoreWeave, Meta has an investment-grade credit rating.
CoreWeave’s stock drop comes before the company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings next Thursday. Nvidia’s recent announcement of a $2 billion equity infusion last month had alleviated some investor concerns surrounding CoreWeave’s reliance on debt funding. Shares of CoreWeave are more than 24% this year to date.
Still, if investors are indeed unwilling to participate in a CoreWeave data-center deal even with Nvidia’s backstop, it could signal increasing difficulties in funding AI infrastructure projects. Such a scenario could also potentially saddle Blue Owl with the responsibility of funding the data center.
Blue Owl has recently faced its own pressures, including a halt on redemptions in one of its retail funds.
