Oracle, CoreWeave Dump on AI's $3.6 Trillion Financing Bill

CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) shares fell over 4% Thursday after the AI infrastructure company announced plans to raise $3 billion through convertible debt, with an option for another $500 million. The fresh financing comes as new research mapping $3.6 trillion across the AI industry highlights CoreWeave and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) as two of the most leveraged companies in the supply chain. CoreWeave opened the door to selling as many as 35 million shares, as Benzinga reported Thursday. AI Financing Comes Full Circle London credit hedge fund Sona Asset Management mapped $3.6 trillion of AI-related financing across 176 deals involving 202 entities. Sona flagged about 120 of those deals as highly circular, meaning the same companies often show up as investors, customers and suppliers. One example is Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA). The chipmaker has conditionally committed up to about $100 billion to OpenAI. OpenAI, meanwhile, has committed hundreds of billions of dollars to cloud providers including Oracle, which are themselves major buyers of Nvidia chips. A separate Sona chart looked at leverage across the AI supply chain. Oracle and CoreWeave stood out as two of the most heavily indebted companies relative to their earnings. Oracle’s Commitments Stretch Years Ahead Oracle had $125.3 billion of borrowings as of Aug. 31. It has also disclosed another $288 billion of mostly data-center leases that have not yet started. Those leases typically run for 15 to 19 years, meaning Oracle is locking in costs far into the future. The company also has $664 billion of contracted future business. Oracle expects only about 13% of that to turn into revenue over the next 12 months. A large share of Oracle’s backlog reportedly comes from OpenAI. The Financial Times noted that OpenAI does not have positive unadjusted earnings. CoreWeave Needs Markets to Stay Open CoreWeave had $35.6 billion of debt as of June 30. S&P Global Ratings gives the company a B+ rating with a positive outlook. The company expects to spend between $35 billion and $39 billion on capital expenditures this year, after raising its guidance in August as demand for AI capacity increased. That makes continued access to capital markets central to CoreWeave’s growth. The company needs to finance enormous amounts of new infrastructure before much of the revenue from that capacity arrives. If financing becomes more expensive or AI demand slows, that model could come under pressure. Traders See Little Chance of a Full Bust Polymarket traders currently put an AI-industry downturn by Dec. 31 at 12%, with about $2.38 million traded on the contract. The contract sets a high bar: at least three of six stress events must occur within 90 days, including Nvidia falling 50%, an OpenAI or Anthropic bankruptcy, or a 50% drop in any of five big AI-hardware suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor or Broadcom. Sona’s broader point is that much of the AI buildout rests on the same source of demand. With OpenAI at the center of many of those commitments, any slowdown in its spending or funding could quickly ripple through Oracle, CoreWeave and their suppliers. Image: Shutterstock Read Also: SpaceX Is Worth $2 Trillion. Why Does Its Stock Swing Like a Small-Cap?