Jo Bhakdi
Investor, Tesla & AI Stocks
Slower neoclouds such as CoreWeave face an uphill battle against SpaceX's faster data-center buildout. Demand may be effectively unlimited, but falling a year or two behind creates a $5-10B cash cost disadvantage they may not survive. Some could still pull off a miracle; SpaceX itself competes as a neocloud and has no reason to buy firms that cannot build data centers. x.com x.com x.comÂ
SpaceX and Nebius benefit as AI compute demand explodes and outstrips supply. NVIDIA B200 compute prices, the global benchmark, rose 21% in the last month. Most businesses and people are not yet consuming meaningful AI because they do not know what to do with it, but products like Fable, Astra and Grok Bot are nearly at a breakthrough, and a broad leap in adoption by many orders of magnitude is very likely within six to nine months. Compute is the bet. x.com x.comÂ
SpaceX's cheap capital and hardware execution give its compute buildout an edge over neoclouds and megacaps. It is quickly becoming the world's largest compute supplier: its 2033 bonds pay 5.65% versus 9.625% on CoreWeave's 2032 notes, and it deployed 110,000 GB300s at Colossus II in 64 days. It targets 10GW to "maybe" 20GW in 2027. One of Anthropic's biggest compute suppliers, SpaceX has up to $120.5B in estimated commitments through 2029, cancellable on 90 days' notice after early 2027. x.comÂ
SpaceX's near-monopoly in global satellite internet, built on reusable rockets, should generate enormous cash flow to partly fund its AI compute buildout. Those cash flows should strengthen its credit profile and let it finance the rest more cheaply than pure-play neoclouds CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN, which SpaceX makes obsolete. Grok ensures deployed compute earns revenue if customers back out. There is no reason to own a pure-play neocloud when SpaceX is available. x.com x.comÂ
Scarce compute could ease financing for neoclouds such as Nebius and CoreWeave by shortening capex payback. Elon Musk says SpaceX's new deployments pay back in less than a year at current pricing; that bodes well for other neoclouds facing financing concerns if they achieve similar economics. GPU rental rates keep hitting highs, contrary to Gartner's claim of oversupply. x.com x.com x.com x.comÂ
SpaceX's exclusive use of Nvidia GPUs and other supply constraints make Musk's 13-20 GW operational compute forecast for end-2027 too high. A substantial buildout is still incredibly enticing, but reaching that scale likely requires cheap capacity from struggling neoclouds, mostly through capacity deals and some acquisitions. Its attractive $40B off-balance-sheet GPU lease deal is only a drop in the bucket of the debt needed. Capacity can still grow quickly over time. x.com x.com x.com x.com … Show more
Global resistance to data centers could constrain December cloud growth despite the longer agentic AI buildout. Some estimates say roughly 120 US projects worth over $130B face delays; opposition spans the UK, EU, Australia and Malaysia too. Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon remain favored, though guidance is at risk. CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN may bounce hardest short term but look weak longer term as funding tightens; Elon Musk expects extensive neo-cloud consolidation. x.com x.com x.com x.comÂ
Alphabet's lighter-than-expected capex is bad for neoclouds including Nebius, IREN and CoreWeave, qualifying their compute-demand case. Reuters reported quarterly capex of $51.355 billion against a $55 billion estimate. The shortfall may signal a capex cut. x.com x.comÂ
Hardware suppliers and VC keep financing cash-hungry labs and neoclouds, making compute rental prices at CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN look artificially supported. Lab revenue growth is finally plateauing at 800% year over year after roughly tenfold equity gains across the stack over the last decade. The buildout is also crowding out the economy's appetite for debt. x.com x.com x.com x.com x.com x.comÂ
SpaceX's planned tenfold neocloud expansion and tightening financing could pressure Nebius. Musk says debt markets have nearly shut for companies without substantial non-AI-data-center revenue, implying consolidation among the 200-plus neoclouds. Nebius looks less appealing than SpaceX, and picking a battle with Elon is not attractive. x.com x.comÂ
Neoclouds can reprice higher only if financing constraints halt smaller rivals' buildouts, leaving CoreWeave and Nebius as survivors. CoreWeave CDS has seen its highs and its debt has repriced upward; a business that might fail in four years is different from one that must fail now. Ant's S-1 confirms that serving inference is extremely profitable. x.comÂ
Debt and difficulty raising enough capital to reach break-even scale leave neoclouds such as CoreWeave unable to count on reselling contracted compute. At the current trajectory, the two likely outcomes are renegotiating prices or defaulting on contracts and losing access to the capacity. x.comÂ
