AI Debt Has Exploded 4X To Nearly $500 Billion: What It Means For NVDA, ORCL And CRWV, According To IO Fund

• Lenders fund borrowers such as Oracle, CoreWeave and SpaceX, which use that financing to purchase chips from suppliers including Nvidia.

• The borrowers then rent compute capacity to customers, while suppliers collect payment when chips are delivered.

• For Nvidia, the financing surge is supporting chip purchases across the ecosystem, analysts at IO Fund said.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a financeable infrastructure asset class as companies increasingly turn to debt markets to fund data centers and AI hardware, according to IO Fund.

Morgan Stanley data cited by IO Fund shows AI-related debt issuance reached $466 billion through September, up from $101 billion during the same period in 2025. Goldman Sachs puts the figure at $489 billion as of July 22, already above the $322 billion raised throughout 2025.

See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox

Nvidia shares closed 0.6% lower on Friday, Oracle shares closed 0.5% higher, while CoreWeave shares fell more than 2%.

What The AI Debt Boom Means For NVDA, ORCL and CRWV

IO Fund’s analysis shows Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and CoreWeave Inc. (CRWV) occupy different positions in the debt-funded AI infrastructure chain.

Lenders fund borrowers such as Oracle, CoreWeave and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX), which use that financing to purchase chips from suppliers including Nvidia. The borrowers then rent compute capacity to customers, while suppliers collect payment when chips are delivered.

For Nvidia, the financing surge is supporting chip purchases across the ecosystem, analysts at IO Fund said. Nvidia generated $127 billion in free cash flow over the 12 months ended July 2026, IO Fund noted. It also added that Nvidia has signed preliminary agreements with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR targeting more than $500 billion in third-party capital.

CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia retains the option to backstop up to $125 billion across these structures. IO Fund also notes that borrowers pay Nvidia and other chip suppliers upfront while customer revenue arrives over multi-year contracts.

“AI compute is becoming a financeable infrastructure asset class,” IO Fund said.

For Oracle, the debt burden is already visible in its financials, IO Fund stated, while adding that Oracle reported $125.3 billion in notes payable and borrowings in the first quarter (Q1). This is over three times its $37.1 billion in cash and marketable securities. Quarterly interest expense rose 55% year over year to $1.43 billion.