Shares of AI-focused computing infrastructure firms jumped before the open after news of a record $38 billion loan to build new data centers. The funding underscores accelerating demand for high-intensity compute and supports suppliers of power, racks, chips and the funds holding these stocks. The move signals broader momentum across the AI infrastructure stack and heightened investor attention on capital flows into compute.
The loan backs the “Stargate” project, with Vantage Data Centers allocating $23.25 billion in Texas and $14.75 billion in Wisconsin. Oracle said it will commit up to $500 billion to AI infrastructure overall and will also purchase cloud services alongside NVIDIA GB200 chips estimated at $30–40 billion in partnership with OpenAI.
Right after the news, Cipher Mining (CIFR), IREN (IREN) and Bitfarms (BITF) climbed in pre-market trading and erased recent losses. The buildout is set to add more than 5 GW of power capacity—4.5 GW in the U.S.—with the first Stargate hall in Abilene, Texas, expected to create over 100,000 jobs, highlighting the scale and labor impact of the expansion.
NVIDIA still supplies roughly 80–85% of chips used in AI data centers, leaving buyers dependent on a single source for pricing and delivery. Liquid cooling and other power-saving techniques are now essential to support dense compute deployments at scale.
A DeFi protocol named USD.AI is already turning dollar-linked stablecoins into GPU-backed loans, where lenders earn about 13–17% interest while the chips serve as collateral, tying blockchain-based financing directly to physical compute assets.
Implications and risks
The deal opens a new avenue to finance servers and weakens the link between these firms’ profits and the volatility of crypto mining cycles. For traders and corporate treasuries, the evolving funding landscape and supply dynamics introduce distinct risk factors.
Next milestones include the completion of Stargate I in Abilene and the full drawdown of the $38 billion loan. Traders will also watch share prices and trading volumes of AI Miner stocks, using the cited data as a guide for momentum and sector breadth.
The record financing and Oracle’s broader AI infrastructure push mark a step-change in capital formation for compute, reinforcing demand signals while concentrating technological and market risks that investors must monitor closely.
