Tools / Chip lease or loan
InfraCompute Tools · Chip lease or loan
Lease the chips, or borrow against them?
Two filed ways to finance AI compute. In one, a chip maker buys the hardware and leases it to an AI lab on aircraft-style terms. In the other, private credit lends to a GPU cloud against its GPUs and its customer contract. Here they are side by side, each point linked to the filed wording.
- Points compared
- 9
- Lease clauses quoted
- 10
- Filed GPU loans
- 12
- GPU loan commitments
- $33.3bn
Point by point
The lease and the loans compared
The lease is the Broadcom master equipment lease of Google TPU8i pods to an Anthropic subsidiary, filed as Anthropic S-1/A, Exhibit 10.11. The loans are the 12 GPU credit agreements in the GPU loan summaries, from CoreWeave, IREN, Nscale, Sharon AI; 10 are under New York law.
| Point | The filed TPU lease | The filed GPU loans |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the chips | Broadcom keeps legal title for the five-year term and the lessee is the owner for US tax. Title passes to the lessee at the end for a nominal sum. The lessee also grants Broadcom a first priority security interest, so Broadcom is secured whether a court calls it a lease or a loan. The filed wording | The borrower, usually a special purpose subsidiary, owns the GPUs. The lenders take security over the GPUs, the customer contract and the accounts, perfected where the GPUs sit. Where this comes from |
| What is paid | Each pod’s total price over five years, in 20 fixed and equal quarterly instalments, with interest on the outstanding price. The figures are redacted in the filing. The filed wording | Interest at a margin over the benchmark, from 2.25% to 8.75% across the 12 filed GPU loans, with amortisation sized to the customer contract’s cash flows. Where this comes from |
| What the credit rests on | Anthropic’s guarantee of its subsidiary, and credit support at each site from Google or an alternative provider. Oracle is named as a possible alternative. The filed wording | The customer contract. The filed loans size the debt to it, test it as a condition to each draw and trap cash if it weakens. Where this comes from |
The lease, clause by clause
Read the filed lease
A chip lease that is really a loan
Is a lease of AI chips a true lease or a secured financing, and why does it matter?
Lease clauseHell or high water rent on chips
Can the lessee stop paying rent if the chips are late, faulty or lost?
Lease clauseWhat a chip lessor needs from the data centre
Before leased chips go into a data centre, what must the site owner, operator and their lenders sign?
Lease clauseIf the data centre’s landlord or tenant fails
What happens to leased chips if the data centre landlord goes bankrupt or the tenant defaults?
Lease clauseLoss, damage and insurance of leased chips
Who bears the risk if leased chips are destroyed, who insures them and where do the proceeds go?
Lease clauseDefault and repossession of leased chips
When can a chip lessor repossess, switch off or sell the equipment?
Lease clauseBuying out leased chips to cure a default
Can the lessee stop a repossession by buying the chips, and at what price?
Lease clauseReturning leased chips
In what condition must leased chips come back, and who stores them?
Lease clauseSelling down a chip lease
Can the lessor sell or finance the lease, and who is it barred from selling to?
Lease clauseVendor financing of GPU servers, and the bank loan that takes it out
How does GPU vendor financing work, and how does a project loan refinance it?
Method
The lease column summarises the contract library’s clauses from the filed lease, each quoted word for word and checked against the SEC filing. The loan column summarises the GPU loan summaries and the enforcement playbook, which quote the filed credit agreements and the statutes. Margins are as filed and exclude any fixed rate tranche. Summaries describe the documents, not how a court would treat them. General information drawn from public filings. It is not legal advice on any transaction, and using this page does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Views are personal.
