Jas Khaira, Head of AI at Blackstone, stated that market concerns regarding debt related to AI infrastructure development are exaggerated. He noted that despite recent interest rate hikes and a surge in AI infrastructure debt issuance causing market unease, Blackstone, as one of the largest owners in the AI computing sector (excluding hyperscale cloud providers), has its data center debt financing ultimately backed by the world's most creditworthy companies.

Khaira stated at last week's TechCrunch Disrupt conference that Blackstone is actively positioning itself in the AI sector through various strategies, including providing large-scale loans to data centers and investing in cutting-edge AI models and applications. He emphasized that Blackstone has pioneered a financing structure by analyzing committed client contracts and using GPUs as collateral, providing billions of dollars in loans to new cloud providers such as CoreWeave and Firmus. For example, Blackstone has committed a $5 billion investment to Crux AI and co-led a $10 billion credit facility for Australian GPU provider Firmus with Coatue.

He acknowledged that the substantial debt accumulated by these companies recently (CoreWeave's debt has swelled to approximately $50 billion) has sparked concerns, leading to a more than 20% drop in CoreWeave's stock price, and Firmus canceling its planned IPO, which was valued at around $30 billion. However, Khaira believes this is not a credit risk akin to the 2008 banking crisis, as most data centers are built for hyperscale cloud providers, and their debt is ultimately supported by the world's most reliable companies.