Description

An examination of how AI infrastructure is financed using project finance structures, using OpenAI's pre-IPO revenue miss as a lens to explore how SPVs, take-or-pay agreements and highly leveraged data centre deals work and what happens when a counterparty at the end of the chain stops performing.

Learning Objectives

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1. Determine how AI data centre infrastructure is financed through project finance structures.
2. Identify the key components of a data centre SPV including construction contracts, take-or-pay agreements and the debt waterfall.
3. Explain why data centre project finance can operate at up to 90% leverage and why that depends on locked-in cash flows.
4. Differentiate between the risk profiles and financing obligations of the major hyperscalers.
5. Assess how a revenue shortfall at OpenAI could propagate through the financing chain and the implications for Oracle's credit position.