GOOGL, BX Stock In Focus — Banking Consortium Reportedly Lines Up $22B AI Chip Financing For Blackstone-Alphabet Venture

• A 10-bank consortium is providing $22 billion in debt, along with a separate $1 billion revolving credit facility.
• The loan is secured directly by the underlying hardware, specifically Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), as well as Crux AI's customer agreements. 
• Backed by an initial $5-billion equity investment from Blackstone, Crux AI aims to provide cloud computing power directly to top AI labs.

A consortium of major global financial institutions is providing a $22-billion loan to back Crux AI, a newly launched artificial intelligence cloud venture formed by Blackstone Inc. (BX) and Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL), according to a Bloomberg report.

The massive debt facility represents one of the latest high-stakes financing deals supporting the rapidly expanding infrastructure required for advanced AI applications.

BX stock slipped 0.2% after-hours on Wednesday, while GOOGL stock added 0.2%.

Banking Syndicate And Debt Structure

The 10-bank consortium funding the transaction includes Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA, and Bank of Nova Scotia, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the arrangement. 

The lending group is currently working to syndicate a portion of the loan to additional financial institutions to distribute market exposure.

The $22-billion loan will fund the purchase of Google-designed Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). The debt is secured by the market value of the processor chips themselves, along with Crux AI's underlying customer contracts. 

In addition to the primary loan, select participating banks are extending a $1-billion revolving credit line to the venture. Sources noted that the short-term facility may eventually be refinanced through longer-term debt issuance in the investment-grade corporate bond market.

Representatives for Crux AI, Blackstone, and Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the transaction, while Alphabet, SMBC, Barclays, BNP Paribas, and Scotiabank did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Bloomberg reported.

Escalating AI Hardware Financing

The multi-billion-dollar arrangement highlights a broader trend across Wall Street, where lenders are increasingly moving beyond standard data center real estate loans to finance high-cost semiconductor hardware directly.

The transaction follows several recent mega-deals in the AI hardware sector. Lenders including Apollo Global Management Inc. and Blackstone recently extended a $35-billion debt package to support Anthropic's leasing of TPUs in a deal backed by Broadcom Inc. Additionally, Nvidia Corp. partnered with major financial firms last month on a $500-billion initiative designed to assist enterprise customers in financing graphics processing unit (GPU) purchases.

About Crux AI

Crux AI, which operated internally under the code name Project Braid before its launch, was established to deliver specialized high-performance computing power to major AI research labs, placing it in direct competition with neocloud providers like CoreWeave Inc (CRWV) and Nebius Group NV (NBIS).

Supported by a $5-billion initial equity foundation from Blackstone, the venture plans to deploy 500 megawatts of computing capacity online by 2027 using Google’s proprietary TPUs. However, the startup has experienced early operational challenges, including delays in securing primary data center locations intended to host the processing hardware.

BX, GOOGL Stock: Retail View 

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits was ‘bearish’ on both BX and GOOGL stock. 

BX stock has lost about 21% year-to-date, while GOOGL stock has gained 10%. 

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