Analysis · Markets · 4 min read
Who lends to neoclouds? From private credit to bank-led project finance
In 2023 GPU loans came from a handful of private credit funds. By 2026 the largest banks were arranging them and rating agencies were grading them. Volume followed.
- 01Disclosed GPU-backed lending grew from US$2.5bn in 2023 to US$42.2bn in 2026 to 22 October.
- 02The first deals came from Magnetar, Blackstone, Macquarie and Upper90.
- 03In 2026 JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, MUFG and Morgan Stanley arranged most of the large loans, with Pimco and Blue Owl as investors.
The lender base for GPU loans has changed almost completely in three years, and the change explains much of what happened to price and structure.
2023 to 2024: private credit
The first facilities came from funds that could underwrite a new asset quickly and price it accordingly. Magnetar and Blackstone led CoreWeave's DDTL 1.0 in August 2023 and DDTL 2.0 in May 2024. Upper90 lent to Crusoe, and Macquarie financed Lambda's US$500m GPU facility in April 2024 without requiring multi-year contracts.
2025: banks arrive
CoreWeave's DDTL 3.0 in July 2025, arranged by MUFG, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs at SOFR + 4.00%, marked the shift to bank-led deals. Macquarie and Victory Park continued to finance smaller fleets in the Nordics.
Disclosed GPU-backed lending by year
Show the data table
| Year | Disclosed size (US$bn) | Loans |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2.5 | 2 |
| 2024 | 8.0 | 2 |
| 2025 | 18.6 | 8 |
| 2026 | 42.2 | 19 |
2026: bank-led, rated and syndicated
In 2026 the large loans were arranged by banks: MUFG and Morgan Stanley on DDTL 4.0, with Blackstone as anchor; Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan on IREN Hardware 3 and Nscale's US loans; JPMorgan on Lambda Compute I; MUFG on Nebius. DDTL 5.0 was syndicated into public markets. Institutional investors stayed in, with Pimco and Blue Owl in Nscale's European loan and IREN's Mackenzie financing, and banks from Taiwan, France and Japan joined.
What it means for borrowers
- Price. Bank-led deals with investment-grade customers price at 2.25% to 2.50%; private credit remains the route for weaker contracts, at wider margins.
- Structure. Banks bring project finance documentation: draw conditions, accounts, reserves and direct agreements.
- Process. Ratings, syndication and fixed-rate tranches add work, and open the deal to more capital.
Questions for the market
- Will private credit move to the riskier tranches, such as residual value or shorter contracts?
- How much bank appetite remains for single-customer concentrations?
- When will a GPU portfolio be refinanced in the ABS market, as data centres were?
For in-house counsel
Take it to the documents
The filed wording behind this piece, for the lender’s or the borrower’s side. Previews are open; the full text is free with InfraCompute Weekly.
- Contract library: Neocloud corporate revolvers5 clauses quoted from filed contracts. SPV carve-outs, parent guarantees and cross-default.
- Contract library: GPU capacity contracts16 clauses quoted from filed contracts. The customer contracts behind the credit.
- Issues list: Neocloud corporate revolverBuild it from the lender’s or the borrower’s side, with where filed deals land.
- The legal desk for in-house counselContract library, issues lists, checklists and English law notes.
Sources
- CoreWeave DDTL 1.0: blackstone.com
- Lambda and Macquarie, April 2024: businesswire.com
- CoreWeave DDTL 3.0: investors.coreweave.com
- CoreWeave DDTL 5.0: investors.coreweave.com
- IREN Mackenzie: SEC filing: sec.gov
- Nscale Europe: bloomberg.com
