OpenAI’s data-centre and infrastructure partners are on track to accumulate almost $100bn in borrowing tied to the fast-growing but still lossmaking AI start-up, according to figures reported by the Financial Times. The company behind ChatGPT continues to benefit from a debt-driven global buildout of compute capacity — without assuming most of the financial risk on its own balance sheet.
SoftBank, Oracle and CoreWeave have already amassed at least $30bn in loans to support OpenAI, either through direct investment or the construction of large-scale data-centre facilities. Additional funding tied to other partners — including Blue Owl Capital and computing-infrastructure player Crusoe — accounts for about $28bn in further borrowing, the FT reported.
In the latest sign of accelerating financial commitments, a consortium of banks is in advanced talks to provide another $38bn in funding for new Oracle and Vantage Data Centers sites designed to serve OpenAI’s compute needs. People close to the negotiations told the FT the deal could be completed within weeks.
Despite the staggering sums being raised on its behalf, OpenAI has taken on relatively little debt of its own. The $500bn-valued San Francisco company maintains a $4bn credit facility secured last year — but has yet to draw from it. Instead, corporate partners and private-credit providers are carrying the weight of the infrastructure expansion required to support the company’s push toward artificial general intelligence.
“That’s been kind of the strategy,” a senior OpenAI executive told the Financial Times. “How does [OpenAI] leverage other people’s balance sheets?”
The commitments tied to OpenAI now total $100bn, a figure comparable to the net debt levels of the world’s six largest corporate borrowers, according to a 2024 Janus Henderson report. And the true total may be higher still: SoftBank alone has raised roughly $20bn this year for AI-related investments, while CoreWeave — which also supplies compute to Microsoft — has borrowed more than $10bn to scale its data-centre footprint.
The spending spree is fueled by OpenAI’s insatiable need for cutting-edge compute power, used to train and operate its increasingly advanced models, including video generation systems. “Building AI infrastructure is the single most important thing we can do to meet surging global demand,” the company said, pointing to the current global compute shortage as a key bottleneck.
Oracle has been among the most aggressive fundraisers, already issuing $18bn in corporate bonds to support infrastructure buildouts for OpenAI. Analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets expect the company to borrow as much as $100bn over the next four years to fulfil its obligations — including the $38bn debt package for new Vantage-developed sites in Texas and Wisconsin.
Many of these projects rely on special purpose vehicles (SPVs), shielding developers and investors from liability if the ventures struggle to repay their loans. The Texas and Wisconsin facilities for Oracle will use such SPVs, according to people involved in the talks.
Blue Owl and Crusoe formed a joint SPV to construct OpenAI’s first dedicated US data centre in Abilene, Texas — a project financed with a $10bn loan from JPMorgan to be repaid through Oracle’s 17-year lease. JPMorgan would assume ownership of the site if Oracle failed to meet its obligations. A separate Blue Owl SPV borrowed $18bn from Japanese banks for a second facility in New Mexico, also leased to Oracle for OpenAI’s needs.
As OpenAI expands its compute requirements and accelerates its roadmap toward more powerful AI systems, debts linked to its ecosystem are expected to continue growing — raising questions about systemic risk, corporate exposure, and the sustainability of an AI boom increasingly financed on borrowed money.
