[News] AI Chip Spending Fuels Debt Financing Wave; Broadcom Reportedly Eyes Tens of Billions to Fund OpenAI

AI companies and their infrastructure partners are increasingly turning to debt financing to fund massive chip purchases as they expand AI capacity. According to Bloomberg, Broadcom has held preliminary discussions on arranging financing to help OpenAI purchase the custom AI chips the two companies are developing together. No formal process has begun and the plans could still change.

Estimates of the potential financing size vary, as talks remain at an early stage and the final amount could change. Bloomberg reports that discussions point to around $30 billion in debt for the next phase of the project, while The Wall Street Journal says Broadcom has been working to arrange more than $50 billion in financing for OpenAI’s custom AI chips.

The financing push extends across the AI industry. Oracle is also discussing chip-purchase financing with Apollo Global Management and Goldman Sachs, with one potential structure involving a separate entity buying the chips and leasing them to the cloud provider, according to Wall Street Journal.

AI Chip Purchases Drive New Wave of Debt Financing

SpaceX is separately seeking $40 billion to purchase NVIDIA AI chips, including about $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt, according to Reuters. The transaction is expected to close in 2027, as noted by Financial Times. Reuters cites Morgan Stanley estimates that AI infrastructure will require $1.5 trillion in external financing through 2028.

A separate $60 billion AI chip financing package backed in part by Broadcom is also moving forward, with Anthropic among the main beneficiaries. The package includes $42 billion in senior-secured debt backed by residual-value support from Broadcom and $18 billion in junior debt led by Blackstone, which has committed $9 billion, according to Bloomberg. Banks including Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley are involved in syndicating the financing.

AI Compute Emerges as a New Investment Asset Class

Broadcom has also been developing a broader financing framework for AI infrastructure. In June, the company established the AI XPV Platform with Apollo and Blackstone to support more than 20 gigawatts of compute capacity using Broadcom’s XPUs and networking solutions for AI developers including Anthropic and OpenAI through 2028. The platform launched with an initial $35 billion transaction supporting more than 1 gigawatt of Anthropic compute infrastructure.

Major financial institutions are also building dedicated platforms to finance the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. In August, NVIDIA partnered with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to establish independent financing platforms aimed at mobilizing more than $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure over time. NVIDIA said the initiative is designed to turn AI compute and infrastructure into an investable asset class and provide customers with access to large pools of capital.

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(Photo credit: OpenAI)