Sources: a group of 10 banks is giving a $22B loan to Blackstone and Alphabet's cloud venture Crux AI, which aims to provide compute for AI labs, to buy TPUs

Lenders are now providing massive debt packages secured by AI chips and future revenue contracts, opening new financing avenues for AI infrastructure.

A new cloud computing venture, Crux AI, backed by Blackstone and Alphabet, is securing a $22 billion loan from ten banks to acquire Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). This financing is one of the largest debt packages specifically for AI computing hardware. The loan is collateralized by the value of the TPUs and Crux AI's customer contracts. A separate $1 billion revolving credit facility is also being provided. Crux AI, a result of a Google and Blackstone initiative, aims to address the escalating enterprise demand for AI computing capacity, with plans for 500 megawatts of data center capacity by 2027. The venture leverages Google's proprietary TPUs for AI and machine learning workloads, extending Alphabet's custom silicon ecosystem, while providing Blackstone with significant exposure to AI infrastructure.

This deal signals a significant evolution in AI infrastructure financing, moving beyond traditional corporate balance sheets and equity to incorporate asset-backed lending where specialized chips act as collateral. The structure, combining hardware value with customer contracts, demonstrates a maturing market capable of underwriting large-scale projects for AI hardware similar to traditional infrastructure finance. This approach may enable more ventures to access the vast capital required for AI buildouts, potentially accelerating the deployment of AI computing resources.

For Alphabet, this venture offers a new channel to expand TPU adoption beyond Google Cloud, while for Blackstone, it represents a strategic entry into AI infrastructure finance by securitizing digital assets and future revenue. As AI hardware costs escalate into the tens of billions, this model of debt financing secured by physical assets and contracted revenue streams is likely to become increasingly crucial for the industry's growth.