Blackstone’s Jas Khaira Says Fears Over AI Buildout Debt Are Overblown
Blackstone is investing heavily in the AI boom, financing data centers and AI computing providers while also backing companies developing chips and AI applications. At TechCrunch Disrupt, Blackstone AI head Jas Khaira argued that concerns about the debt financing this buildout are overstated.
The investment firm, which manages $1.3 trillion in assets, launched Blackstone N1 earlier this year as a central hub for its AI efforts. Khaira, who moved from New York to San Francisco to lead the group, said Blackstone can offer companies a range of financing options, from debt to equity. He described the firm as the largest owner of computing capacity outside the major cloud providers.
Blackstone has backed projects including Crux AI, a cloud provider launched with Google to commercialize its custom AI chips. Blackstone committed $5 billion to the company. It has also backed chip startup Etched.
The firm’s lending strategy for AI infrastructure gained traction in 2023, when it loaned CoreWeave $2.3 billion. At the time, CoreWeave had about $30 million in revenue and limited profitability. The loan was secured in part by its Nvidia GPUs and supported by customer contracts, including business with Microsoft.
That financing approach later informed loans to other cloud providers. Blackstone and Coatue, for example, co-led a $10 billion credit facility for Australian GPU provider Firmus.
But the scale of AI infrastructure borrowing is drawing scrutiny. CoreWeave’s debt has grown to about $50 billion, and rising interest rates and credit spreads are making financing more expensive. CoreWeave shares have fallen sharply, while Firmus abandoned plans for an Australian IPO at a valuation of roughly $30 billion.
Khaira said investors are reassessing what these companies are worth as borrowing costs rise. Still, he argued that the risks do not amount to a broader credit crisis. Much of the data-center debt ultimately supports infrastructure built for major cloud companies, which he described as among the world’s most creditworthy businesses.
Blackstone is also investing in AI adoption. It formed a $1.5 billion joint venture with Anthropic and Hellman & Friedman to provide engineers who help companies implement AI, beginning with Blackstone’s portfolio of 280 businesses.
Khaira said those companies are seeing returns from AI, but the results are uneven. He described adoption as a “sawtooth-type pattern,” with periods of infrastructure investment sometimes arriving before widespread use catches up.
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