Blackstone’s Jas Khaira says fears over AI-buildout debt are overblown

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Private equity giant Blackstone is putting itself at the center of the AI boom, firm veteran Jas Khaira discussed last week on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt. It is writing checks via various strategies, ranging from offering massive loans to data centers to investing in frontier AI models and applications.

私募股权巨头黑石集团正将自己置于人工智能热潮的中心，公司资深人士贾斯·凯拉（Jas Khaira）上周在 TechCrunch Disrupt 大会的舞台上讨论了这一点。该公司正通过多种策略进行投资，范围从向数据中心提供巨额贷款，到投资前沿人工智能模型和应用。

Earlier this year, the firm launched Blackstone N1 (BXN1), a San Francisco-based central hub for its AI initiatives. The group is led by Khaira, who relocated from New York to be at the epicenter of AI. Unlike earlier tech cycles such as mobile or SaaS, which allowed companies to reach significant scale with moderate capital, the transition to AI requires staggering amounts of investment.

今年早些时候，该公司推出了 Blackstone N1 (BXN1)，这是一个位于旧金山的中心枢纽，专门负责其人工智能计划。该小组由凯拉领导，他从纽约搬迁至此，以便身处人工智能的中心地带。与移动互联网或 SaaS 等早期的技术周期不同，后者允许公司以适度的资本实现显著规模，而向人工智能的转型则需要惊人的投资额。

That need for capital is precisely why Blackstone, with its $1.3 trillion in assets under management, could play such a critical role in this tech shift. Khaira emphasized that Blackstone sets itself apart from traditional venture capitalists through its focus on compute financing and its ability to offer flexible capital structures, ranging from debt to equity. And it has been investing aggressively.

这种对资本的需求正是黑石集团凭借其 1.3 万亿美元的管理资产，能够在这次技术变革中发挥关键作用的原因。凯拉强调，黑石集团通过专注于计算融资以及提供从债务到股权等灵活资本结构的能力，将自己与传统的风险投资机构区分开来。而且，该公司一直在积极进行投资。

“We’re the largest owner of compute outside of the hyperscalers today, whether it’s investments in neo clouds, investments in data centers, and being able to use that compute strategically to support companies,” Khaira said. For instance, BXN1 played a key role in several compute-related deals, among them Crux AI, a neocloud launched in partnership with Google to commercialize its custom TPUs, to which Blackstone committed $5 billion as an investor.

“我们是当今超大规模云服务商之外最大的计算资源拥有者，无论是对新一代云（neo clouds）的投资，还是对数据中心的投资，我们都有能力战略性地利用这些计算资源来支持企业，”凯拉说道。例如，BXN1 在几笔与计算相关的交易中发挥了关键作用，其中包括 Crux AI，这是一家与谷歌合作推出的新一代云公司，旨在将其定制的 TPU 商业化，黑石作为投资者向其承诺了 50 亿美元。

It also backed four-year-old Etched, a chip startup whose rapid development has caught investor attention. Neoclouds are cloud providers that rent out AI GPU infrastructure. Blackstone pioneered a financing structure that allowed it to lend massive sums to venture-backed cloud neoclouds by analyzing both committed customer contracts and using GPUs pledged as collateral.

它还支持了成立四年的芯片初创公司 Etched，该公司的快速发展引起了投资者的关注。新一代云是指出租人工智能 GPU 基础设施的云服务提供商。黑石开创了一种融资结构，通过分析已承诺的客户合同并使用 GPU 作为抵押品，使其能够向获得风险投资支持的新一代云公司提供巨额贷款。

Blackstone’s first such deal came in 2023 with CoreWeave, shortly after that neocloud saw demand explode following the launch of ChatGPT. Despite having only “30 million of revenue and minimal profitability” at that time, according to Khaira, CoreWeave approached Blackstone for a $2.3 billion loan. CoreWeave was borrowing against the considerable value of its large collection of Nvidia GPUs, with Nvidia also an investor.

黑石的第一笔此类交易发生在 2023 年与 CoreWeave 的合作中，当时正值 ChatGPT 发布后，该新一代云公司的需求出现爆炸式增长。据凯拉称，尽管当时 CoreWeave 只有“3000 万美元的收入和微薄的盈利”，但它还是向黑石寻求了 23 亿美元的贷款。CoreWeave 是以其大量英伟达 GPU 的可观价值作为抵押进行借款的，英伟达也是其投资者之一。

Blackstone also grew more comfortable with the loan because CoreWeave had contracts with blue-chip customers like Microsoft. That transaction quickly became the financing model for how Blackstone and other credit institutions provided billions in follow-on debt to CoreWeave and rival neoclouds.

黑石对这笔贷款也感到更加放心，因为 CoreWeave 与微软等蓝筹客户签有合同。该交易迅速成为黑石和其他信贷机构向 CoreWeave 及其竞争对手提供数十亿美元后续债务的融资模式。

“One of the primary things that we’re looking to is the nature of the customer. And if the customer is an investment-grade customer — let’s say it’s Microsoft or let’s say it’s Meta — the risk gets priced relative to that customer,” Khaira said. Building on its success with CoreWeave, Blackstone struck other neocloud financing deals, including co-leading alongside Coatue a $10 billion credit facility for Australian GPU provider Firmus earlier this year.

“我们关注的首要事项之一是客户的性质。如果客户是投资级客户——比如微软或 Meta——那么风险定价就会与该客户挂钩，”凯拉说。在 CoreWeave 成功经验的基础上，黑石达成了其他新一代云融资交易，包括今年早些时候与 Coatue 共同牵头为澳大利亚 GPU 提供商 Firmus 提供 100 亿美元的信贷额度。

Khaira acknowledged that in recent weeks, the large debt burdens accumulated by these companies and other neocloud operators have begun to raise red flags. Coreweave’s debt alone has since ballooned to about $50 billion, causing Altimeter Capital founder Brad Gerstner to note in a recent CNBC interview, “The collateral that CoreWeave is putting up which is really only GPUs is not good enough anymore. They used that in the past to get cheap debt.”

凯拉承认，最近几周，这些公司和其他新一代云运营商积累的巨额债务负担已开始引发警示。CoreWeave 的债务已膨胀至约 500 亿美元，导致 Altimeter Capital 创始人布拉德·格斯特纳（Brad Gerstner）在最近接受 CNBC 采访时指出：“CoreWeave 提供的抵押品实际上只有 GPU，这已经不够了。他们过去利用这些获得了廉价债务。”

Khaira said that on the credit side, the market jitters stem from a combination of factors. Interest rates ticked up in September, and hotter-than-expected inflation signals that borrowing costs may keep climbing. The flood of AI infrastructure debt offerings isn’t helping either.

凯拉表示，在信贷方面，市场的不安源于多种因素。9 月份利率小幅上升，且高于预期的通胀信号表明借贷成本可能会继续攀升。大量人工智能基础设施债务产品的涌入也无济于事。

“We’re also seeing higher credit spreads,” Khaira said, explaining that lenders are charging higher premiums on top of already higher base interest rates to finance the AI buildout. “The cost of capital to price in debt for a Meta or a Microsoft has widened out,” he added, pointing out that even tech giants with massive balance sheets and solid earnings are paying more to borrow.

“我们还看到了更高的信贷利差，”凯拉解释说，贷款机构在已经较高的基准利率之上收取更高的溢价，以资助人工智能建设。“为 Meta 或微软等公司进行债务定价的资本成本已经扩大，”他补充道，并指出即使是拥有庞大资产负债表和稳健收益的科技巨头，现在借款的成本也更高了。

Concerns about the rising cost of debt have spilled into the stock market. Shares of CoreWeave dropped over 20% in recent days, while Firmus scrapped its planned IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange at a target valuation of roughly $30 billion.

对债务成本上升的担忧已经蔓延到股市。CoreWeave 的股价在最近几天下跌了超过 20%，而 Firmus 则取消了其在澳大利亚证券交易所的首次公开募股（IPO）计划，该计划的目标估值约为 300 亿美元。

“Ultimately, the market wasn’t there at that valuation, and so I think as a result, that deal didn’t get done,” Khaira said about Firmus’ cancelled listing. “The market is thinking what is the right price for neoclouds, what is the right price for these businesses in this moment when interest rates are moving up,” he said.

“归根结底，市场并不认可那个估值，所以我认为结果就是那笔交易没能完成，”凯拉在谈到 Firmus 取消上市时说。“市场正在思考新一代云的合理价格是多少，在利率上升的当下，这些企业的合理价格是多少，”他说。

Despite those pressures on some infrastructure providers, AI companies simply can’t get enough compute to power their models. Their appetite continues to drive data center buildout. Khaira downplayed worries of doom-mongers that the massive accumulation of AI infrastructure debt could lead to a widespread credit crisis, or worse, crash the economy altogether.

尽管一些基础设施提供商面临压力，但人工智能公司仍然无法获得足够的计算能力来驱动其模型。他们的需求持续推动着数据中心的建设。凯拉淡化了末日论者的担忧，即人工智能基础设施债务的大量积累可能导致广泛的信贷危机，甚至更糟，导致经济彻底崩溃。

“This doesn’t feel like something where you’ve got 2008 banks that are shaky credits,” he said. Instead, he pointed out that because the vast majority of data centers are built for hyperscalers, the debt financing them is ultimately backed “by the most creditworthy companies in the world.”

“这感觉不像 2008 年那些信贷不稳的银行，”他说。相反，他指出，由于绝大多数数据中心是为超大规模云服务商建造的，为其提供融资的债务最终是由“世界上信用最好的公司”作为后盾的。

Beyond funding data centers, Blackstone is helping companies adopt AI through a $1.5 billion joint venture called “Ode with Anthropic,” formed alongside Anthropic and Hellman & Friedman this year. Ode supplies forward-deployed engineers to help companies adopt AI and integrate it into their operations, starting with Blackstone’s 280 portfolio companies.

除了资助数据中心外，黑石还通过今年与 Anthropic 和 Hellman & Friedman 共同成立的名为“Ode with Anthropic”的 15 亿美元合资企业，帮助企业采用人工智能。Ode 提供前沿部署的工程师，帮助企业采用人工智能并将其整合到运营中，首先从黑石的 280 家投资组合公司开始。

When asked if Blackstone-owned companies are seeing tangible gains from AI, Khaira conceded that “there is definitely ROI, but it is uneven.” He described technology adoption as something tha

当被问及黑石旗下的公司是否从人工智能中看到了切实收益时，凯拉承认“确实有投资回报，但并不均衡。”他将技术采用描述为一种……