Some of CoreWeave's bonds now yield more than 15%, with its 9.625% notes due 2032 trading near 78 cents on the dollar, according to Benzinga and Axios. Credit default swap pricing implies a market-estimated chance of default within five years above 60%, MarketPulse reports.
Axios says CoreWeave carried about $35 billion in debt at the end of June, plus roughly $16 billion in lease liabilities, and burned $5.7 billion in free cash flow in its latest quarter. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he saw no need to help, arguing the cost of capital for such firms is actually falling.
Analysts caution that the 15% figure is a secondary-market yield reflecting the price of new borrowing, not the rate on the existing book, which averages about 8.4%. The episode shows how dependent AI data-center buildouts are on cheap credit.