26.12.2025, Moscow.
A number of IT giants have accumulated $120 billion in debt through hidden lending schemes, shifting the risks onto private investors. This method of raising funds for the development of so-called artificial intelligence (AI) has become a mine planted under the financial market, Rossa Primavera News Agency Economical Desk wrote.
The Financial Times (FT) reported on this scheme on December 25. According to its information, Meta (organization banned in Russia), xAI, Oracle, Platforms, and CoreWeave are actively using special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to raise funds for development.
The essence of the scheme is that an SPV borrows money and uses it in the interests of the parent company. For example, one such fund raised $12.5 billion to purchase Nvidia chips in order to build data centers for AI operations and lease them to Elon Musk’s xAI startup.
If the financial “bubble” created around AI technology bursts, the losses will not affect the parent company. Moreover, such loans are not reflected on the balance sheets of the core companies, which allows them to take on even more debt.
“Data centre construction has become largely reliant on deep-pocketed private credit markets, a rapidly inflating US$1.7 trillion industry that has itself prompted concerns due to steep rises in asset valuations, illiquidity and concentration of borrowers,” the article states.
In other words, the publication points to speculative growth in the value of securities linked to the AI sector. But the problem is not only that this “bubble” may burst. According to FT, funds in this scheme were provided, among others, by BlackRock and major banks such as JPMorgan. Meanwhile, securities backed by pools of such debt have already begun to be sold on the financial market.
Thus, loans are taken out on the basis of speculative share prices of AI-related companies, and these loans serve as collateral for new securities. If demand for AI fails to soar to the projected heights, a cascade of defaults will occur. This closely resembles how the 2008 financial crisis began, when the market for mortgage-backed securities collapsed. The risk is systemic and completely opaque.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
