A consortium of 10 banks is providing a $22 billion loan to Crux AI, the cloud venture backed by Blackstone Inc. and Alphabet Inc., to finance purchases of Google’s tensor processing units, or TPUs. The transaction is among the largest debt financings arranged for processors used in artificial intelligence operations.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA and Bank of Nova Scotia are among the lenders in the arrangement. The identities of the other participating banks have not been disclosed.
Crux AI formally launched last week. Google and Blackstone had announced the venture in May, saying it was formed to meet growing demand for AI computing services.
The $22 billion borrowing is secured against the value of chips acquired by Crux AI and its customer contracts. Several banks are also providing a separate $1 billion revolving credit facility, giving the venture an additional source of funding.
The banking group is syndicating the debt, seeking to add further lenders to the financing. The borrowing could later be refinanced with longer-term capital from institutional investors through the investment-grade bond market.
The syndication process and a possible bond refinancing point to a financing structure designed to distribute a large commitment across a broader group of lenders and investors. Details including the interest rate, other loan terms, the timing of syndication and the identities of additional lenders remain unknown.
Blackstone has made an initial $5 billion equity investment in Crux AI. Google will supply its custom TPUs, as well as software and services, under the venture’s plan to provide cloud computing capacity for artificial intelligence work.
Crux AI aims to bring its first 500 megawatts of capacity online in 2027. The brief does not specify when operations will begin before that target, how the $22 billion will be allocated between chip purchases and other infrastructure costs, or the venture’s expected revenue and profitability timeline.
The collateral structure gives banks claims on the chips and customer contracts held by Crux AI. The specific customer contracts backing the loan have not been identified.
The deal combines bank lending with Blackstone’s equity commitment as Crux AI seeks to build computing infrastructure around Google’s chip technology. Representatives for Crux AI, Blackstone and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Alphabet, SMBC, Barclays, BNP and Scotiabank did not respond to requests for comment.
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