Schulz Duggan
AI Supply-Chain Research, Optics/Memory/Macro, Original Asian/US Filings & Pricing
CoreWeave's financing is cheaper when lenders can underwrite customer contracts and GPUs rather than its own credit. Goldman puts blended debt cost at 800-900 basis points, supported by such secured loans, while unsecured 2031 bonds yielded 15.78% last week. That gap is roughly the market's price for CoreWeave without a large customer contract behind it. x.com
CoreWeave's strong pricing pitch doubles as a capital raise, since pricing power makes equity its cheapest money while the $40M-per-MW figure is fresh. The deck used to sell $3B of convertibles shows Q3 short-dated deals at about $40M of annualized revenue per MW, July prices up about 25% and 70% of Q2 deals prepaid, yet Q2 capex was $9.4B on $2.6B of revenue. The convert is paid in future equity, and a new 35M-share ATM is about $2.9B now. An ATM left mostly unused through Q4 would change this. x.com
CoreWeave's debt-funded GPUs make financing costs central to its business, while credit markets now price severe distress. Its five-year CDS reached 1,194 basis points on October 15 and remained near 1,145 last week, implying roughly 60% default odds over five years. If yields fall after the FOMC yet shares cannot hold $50, the balance sheet deserves more scrutiny than the macro backdrop. x.com
CoreWeave's near-15% bond yields threaten the economics of its AI buildout if funding costs stay this high. Its 2031/2032 notes yield about 14.8-14.9%, and unsecured 2032 paper trades below roughly 80 cents. Credit is pricing stress before equity finishes the story; leveraged GPU landlords would be hit first. The CEO says about $104B of backlog more than covers debt and calls the selloff irrational, but the bond market signals otherwise. x.com
CoreWeave's reliance on secured, contract-backed financing makes alarming unsecured yields look less like a major red flag for its buildout. Around 10% of its debt is unsecured and might trade at 15% if it seeks more; the customer-contract and GPU-backed loans it is focused on have come in at mid-single-digit rates. x.com
CoreWeave's $7.5B debt maturity around June 2027 is stressing its credit. Default insurance on its debt costs about 11.2% a year; at a standard 40% recovery rate, that implies roughly 61% risk-neutral five-year default odds, up from about 31% in June. Despite a bond rebound reported by DeItaone, CoreWeave is distressed, not dead. x.com
CoreWeave's risk is buildout speed: each new build needs capital before the last pays for itself. Its analysis shows $35.6B of loans lasting about nine months beyond customer contracts; $14.6B is due in 2031-32 as final contract cash arrives. IREN's Microsoft project loan matches its contract, but $6.3B of convertible bonds mature in 2031-33, mostly after contracted cash ends; low shares mean cash repayment. Slower AI demand growth could let both earn back projects before funding more. x.com
CoreWeave's unsecured bond yields need not set the cost of all its new funding. Goldman Sachs points to asset-backed borrowing supported by infrastructure and customer contracts and expects blended borrowing costs to rise about 100-200 basis points, despite unsecured yields near 13.5-15%. Goldman also expects recurring revenue per megawatt to rise over 24 months; better cash flow per dollar invested could improve returns if financing stays manageable. x.com
CoreWeave's $35B in debt against $5B in equity and three customers providing 72% of sales leave it financially vulnerable. Its CDS at 1,047 bps implies a 58% chance of default within five years; Lehman's was about 700 bps the Friday before it filed, though Lehman was seen as much more systemic. Jensen Huang may understand CoreWeave better than anyone, but rescuing it could require buying the remaining 87% of its equity and assuming about $40B in debt. x.com x.com x.com x.com
CoreWeave's debt maturities compound its financing pressure. At June's end, $8.1bn was due within a year against $6.4bn cash; bond yields near 15% and rising total debt add to the strain. x.com
CoreWeave's GPU- and contract-backed borrowing reduces financing risk, making it an extremely bullish investment. Its March $8.5B Meta-backed facility had a fixed-rate tranche at 5.9%; a 15% bond yield is not its borrowing rate. Its $130B backlog helps it secure cheaper capital. It is seeking insurer financing and evaluating Nvidia's $500B program, which would backstop up to 25% of qualifying deals against GPU residual-value risk. x.com x.com
CoreWeave's heavy debt leaves it with a substantial financing burden. Annual interest expense is about $3.3 billion; a debt overview sourced to company filings and Bernstein analysis lists $40.95 billion outstanding at an 8% effective interest rate. x.com
