Blackstone Says AI Build‑out Debt Concerns Overblown

Blackstone Says AI Debt Overblown

Blackstone’s AI debt worries are nothing to fear, says Jas Khaira, who moved to San Francisco to lead the firm’s $1.3 trillion‑asset Blackstone N1 AI hub. The firm has been pouring money into compute, from a $5 billion stake in Crux AI to a $2.3 billion loan to CoreWeave, whose debt has now swelled to about $50 billion. Blackstone also co‑led a $10 billion credit line for Australian GPU provider Firmus, which later pulled its $30 billion IPO after market doubts. Khaira says rising rates and higher credit spreads are the main triggers for the jitters, yet the debt is largely secured by hyperscalers like Microsoft and Meta. He added that Blackstone’s $1.5 billion joint venture, Ode with Anthropic, is already helping 280 portfolio companies deploy AI, showing uneven but real ROI.