Chip-Backed Borrowing Boom Propels AI Computing Startups

Companies have used their high-powered chips to get more than $20 billion in loans.

An Nvidia Blackwell chip. Photo via Getty

Several startups offering computing power for artificial intelligence are embracing the “borrow big to grow fast” strategy pioneered by CoreWeave, loading up on debt backed by their stocks of high-powered chips.

For instance, London-based cloud startup Fluidstack has gotten approval from Macquarie and other lenders to borrow more than $10 billion leveraging its holdings of Nvidia AI chips, or graphics processing units, as collateral, said people familiar with the company’s financing.