Investing in AI Infrastructure
Every return comes from the GPU customer, the GPUs, or both.
How it works
An AI infrastructure investment is repaid two ways: by the company renting the GPUs, under its contract, or by what the GPUs sell for later. Where you invest decides which one you rely on.
A senior loan against a hyperscaler contract relies almost entirely on the customer. Owning GPUs relies on both. The positions below run from the first to the second.
Where you can sit
| Position | Repaid by | What public deals paid |
|---|---|---|
| Senior GPU loan, investment-grade customer | The customer: a hyperscaler or rated lab whose contract repays the loan in full. | SOFR + 2.25-3.00% |
| AI data center bonds | The tenant's lease on the building, which outlasts the GPUs inside it. | 6.192-6.75% with an investment-grade tenant, 6.00-9.875% otherwise |
| GPU loans in ABS | A pool of equipment loans; junior tranches take the first losses. | Stonebriar: $869M, about 15% GPU loans, expected AAA to BBB- |
| Senior GPU loan, other customers | The customer, then the hardware if the contract ends early. | SOFR + 4.00-5.50%; 9.00-10.00% fixed |
| Onchain GPU loans | Smaller operators' customers and hardware, plus the protocol itself. | 10.00-15.00% |
| Sale-leaseback | The operator's rent, then the servers when the lease ends. | Not public. Apollo funds led $3.5B for GB200 servers leased to xAI (Jan 2026). |
| Preferred equity | The project's cash after the lenders are paid. | Not public. Macquarie committed $900M to Applied Digital (Jan 2025). |
| Owning GPUs | Rental income while the GPUs are rented, then their resale value. | Rental prices and utilization |
Floating rates are a spread over SOFR. ABS: Bloomberg.
How it goes wrong
Each risk hits one source of repayment. The further down the table you sit, the more of them you carry.
| Risk | What to know | What protects you |
|---|---|---|
| The customer stops paying | Contracts are concentrated: Anthropic, Microsoft, Meta hold 78% of disclosed GPU contract value in the Offtake Tracker. | Take-or-pay terms, a controlled account, lost revenue cover. |
| The GPUs are worth less | Our conservative band puts a B300 at 37-50% of its original price in 2028 (residual value report). | Repayment inside the contract, residual value insurance. |
| The operator fails | The customer pays only while the cluster runs. | Step-in rights and a backup operator. |
| The build runs late | Payments start when the customer accepts the cluster. | A ready-for-service date in the contract and due diligence on the schedule. |
The public deals behind these numbers
| GPU Financing Tracker | Every public GPU financing: lenders, size and pricing. |
| Offtake Tracker | The compute contracts that repay them: buyer, value, term. |
| Rated GPU financings | GPU loans and AI data center bonds with a credit rating. |
| Onchain GPU financing | GPU loans funded through crypto protocols. |
| GPU depreciation schedules | The useful lives public GPU owners book. |
| GPU Value Guide | What used GPU servers are worth, and in a forced sale. |
| GPU appraisals | Used values by GPU, model and brand. |
| GPU financing deals | A sample of the financing requests we see. |
Getting into deals
Most new funders start senior, with a contracted customer. The customer carries the loan and the hardware is the backstop, so the risk to underwrite is one company you can read.
Deals come through Origination. Operators apply to our financing program; the deals that pass are listed for partner funders, codenamed until introduction, from $2 million to over $500 million. Each funder is reviewed on an intake call first.
From there, three ways to go further. Lend alongside other funders: GPU loan syndication. Make loans and sell them on: originate and sell GPU loans. Own a running, contracted cluster: buying an operating GPU cluster.
Get access to deals
Tell us what you fund and the sizes you look at. We will set up an intake call to review your fit as a partner funder, then share projects that match.
Prefer email? hello@amcompute.com
Questions
- Is AI infrastructure debt safer than equity?
- A secured lender is paid before equity and holds a lien on the servers and the customer contract. But GPUs lose value fast, so the loan must be repaid while the contract runs. We do not give investment advice.