Weak Links Start to Show in A.I. Borrowing

Trillions of dollars in borrowed money have powered the A.I. boom. But now there is growing uncertainty around just how easily more money can be obtained — and how much of it will be paid back.

Those questions burst into the forefront this week when investors rapidly lost confidence in one debt-laden data center company, CoreWeave. Prices of its bonds — the company has accrued $72 billion in liabilities to operate 51 data centers — crashed, and investors placed a more than 60 percent likelihood CoreWeave would fail to meet its obligations.

Investors have sold off bonds for other A.I. giants as well, including Larry Ellison’s company, Oracle, though the price declines are not as steep as CoreWeave’s.

At the same time, Wall Street investors have been bidding up the price of some complicated financial instruments that insure corporate debt against default, such as those insuring SoftBank, the Japanese technology colossus that has borrowed heavily to bet its future on a partnership with OpenAI.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/17/business/ai-debt-coreweave-oracle-softbank.html