Stack Infrastructure, the data-centre arm of the private-credit giant Blue Owl, is seeking a loan of about $5.9 billion, according to a Bloomberg report. If finalized, this deal would rank among the larger single financings in a market that has become the engine room of the AI build-out. The figure highlights a dramatic escalation in debt-based financing for artificial intelligence infrastructure, as companies race to secure capacity for the next generation of computing.
Blue Owl has made itself central to that market. Through Stack and a string of joint ventures, it has become one of the biggest private financiers of the data centres AI needs, part of a wave of borrowing that now runs into the hundreds of billions. The new loan follows quickly on the last: Stack raised $2.1 billion as recently as February, and the jump to nearly $6 billion in a matter of months is a measure of how fast the appetite for capacity, and for debt, is growing.
The structure is characteristic of the moment. Rather than fund data centres from cash, the companies building them increasingly borrow against the assets and the long-term contracts that anchor them. This model spreads the enormous cost across lenders hungry for yield, creating a financing ecosystem that has ballooned alongside the AI boom. Blue Owl is no bystander in that shift. It has helped arrange tens of billions in financing for hyperscale projects, including large facilities tied to Meta, putting private credit where traditional banks have grown more cautious.
The scale is what has changed. Individual AI campuses now cost tens of billions to build, sums that outstrip what any single bank wants to lend. That hands private-credit firms like Blue Owl a central role they did not hold a few years ago. For context, just a handful of years ago, data-centre financing was dominated by bank loans and corporate bonds. Now, private credit has emerged as a dominant force, with firms like Blackstone, Brookfield, and Apollo stepping into the void left by risk-averse lenders.
But caution has its reasons. Data-centre debt is only as safe as the demand that underpins it, and a few high-profile wobbles have reminded lenders that the AI boom carries real credit risk beneath the enthusiasm. For instance, Oracle needed PIMCO to anchor a $16 billion financing after banks pulled back, and infrastructure funds from Blackstone to Brookfield are writing cheques that would have looked outlandish two years ago. These examples underscore the fragility of a market built on future projections.
How the Loan Market Works for Data Centres
The lenders are betting on a simple proposition: compute is scarce, the companies renting it are among the richest on earth, and the contracts behind these buildings can run for a decade. This makes the loans look, on paper, like some of the safest bets in infrastructure. In practice, the financing often involves a syndicate of private-credit funds and institutional investors who take on portions of the debt, each earning a slice of the interest. The terms are typically structured as floating-rate loans, which protect lenders if central banks raise rates further.
However, the risk is that the proposition is circular. Much of the demand comes from AI firms still burning cash, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and others that rely on venture capital and compute credits. Some of the debt is being backstopped by chipmakers like Nvidia, which have their own reasons to keep the build-out going—selling more GPUs. This knits the industry’s fortunes tightly together, creating a web of interlocking bets that could unravel if AI demand falters. If a major tenant defaults, it could cascade through the financing chain, hitting lenders and chip suppliers alike.
Blue Owl’s Strategic Position
Blue Owl’s size gives it room the banks lack. As a private-credit manager, it can hold loans that regulated lenders would balk at, and it has leaned into that advantage as the AI-infrastructure market has swollen. The firm manages over $150 billion in assets, with a significant portion tied to direct lending and real estate. Unlike banks, private-credit firms are not bound by strict capital adequacy rules, allowing them to underwrite larger, riskier loans—and charge higher interest rates in return. For Blue Owl, the Stack platform has become a key growth driver, enabling the firm to capture the lucrative intersection of real estate and technology.
Stack Infrastructure itself operates a portfolio of data centres across North America and Europe, serving hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, as well as AI startups. The company has expanded rapidly, acquiring sites and building new facilities to meet demand. The $5.9 billion loan is reportedly intended to refinance existing debt and fund further construction, according to people familiar with the matter. This is part of a broader trend: data-centre REITs and operators are increasingly turning to private credit because of its flexibility and speed compared to traditional bond markets.
Industry-Wide Implications
The looming $5.9 billion deal is just one data point in a much larger story. According to industry estimates, global spending on data-centre construction is expected to exceed $300 billion by 2026, up from roughly $150 billion in 2023. Much of that growth is financed through debt. In the United States alone, private-credit firms have committed more than $100 billion to data-centre projects in the past 18 months, with major players like Apollo Global Management and KKR also ramping up their exposure. This has created a new asset class: data-centre debt, which yields attractive returns of 8% to 12% in a low-default environment.
But not everyone is convinced. Some analysts warn that the market is overheating, as evidenced by the rapid increase in leverage and the involvement of speculative-grade borrowers. The soured Oracle-linked deal, in which PIMCO had to step in after banks retreated, shows that even blue-chip names can face financing hiccups. Moreover, the energy requirements of AI data centres are enormous, with a single facility consuming as much electricity as a small town. Rising power costs and regulatory hurdles could dampen returns, making the loans riskier than anticipated.
For Blue Owl, the calculation is one it keeps making. The firm has decided that financing the picks and shovels of the AI rush is the safer way to profit from it. Rather than investing directly in AI startups or chip companies, which are volatile, Blue Owl is backing the infrastructure that supports them—a play that offers stable, long-term cash flows. The $5.9 billion loan is its latest move to stay at the front of that queue.
What is not in doubt is the direction of travel. The money required to build AI has outgrown balance sheets and is being met, more and more, with borrowed capital. Stack’s latest raise is another rung on a ladder the whole industry is climbing. Each of these loans is a wager on the same future. If AI demand holds, the debt is cheap money against a durable asset; if it cools, the buildings and the borrowings will both look heavier than they do today. For now, though, the private-credit machine is humming, and Blue Owl is right at the centre of it.
Source: TNW | Investors-Funding News