It’s 2026, and tech companies continue to insist they need to spend staggering amounts of money on AI data centers. Yet for all of its enthusiasm over the past few years, Wall Street is finally starting to squint at the numbers.
According to new reporting by Business Insider, JPMorgan Chase is running into trouble finding investors interested in servicing billions in debt backing two of the first five Stargate data centers.
Stargate is Donald Trump’s $500 billion AI project led by tech companies Oracle and OpenAI. Its vague goal, OpenAI has explained, is to “secure American leadership in AI,” which will somehow “support the re-industrialization of the United States” and “provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”
But if JPMorgan — which led financial lenders through a $38 billion Stargate debt raise — is already struggling to sell the vision, that all might be easier said than done. Per BI, a person familiar with both data centers said they’re fully financed, though noted that banks and other investors are growing jittery about pouring even more money into the megaproject.
“We are hearing from market participants that in some cases, there may be banks that could be approaching the exposure levels they’re comfortable with when it comes to certain data center projects,” S&P Global Infrastructure Ratings director Dhaval Shah told BI.
That could mean trouble for Oracle, the cloud gianttapped to provide the physical infrastructure for Stargate. Back in September, S&P Global noted it was considering cutting Oracle’s credit rating — a letter-grade investors use to judge a company’s creditworthiness — below BBB.
The scale runs from AAA at the very top to D, or default, at the bottom. Anything below BBB- would place Oracle in junk-bond territory, which would significantly raise the cost to borrow more debt. In other words, Stargate may soon be seen as so risky that the financial situation behind its data centers becomes unsustainable.
To put the trouble with the two initial data centers into perspective, Trump said last year that Stargate could require as many as 20 data centers when all is said and done. If the market is already reaching its comfortable limit, it’s difficult to imagine a world where Stargate proceeds without significant revisions.
“I am very surprised these loans were even underwritten at the time,” Gil Luria, an analyst at the firm DA Davidson told BI, referring to the data centers that have been funded. “The market has indicated this is not investment-grade debt.”
More on data centers: AI Data Centers Are an Even Bigger Disaster Than Previously Thought
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