Key facts
- Blackstone is the largest owner of compute outside of hyperscalers.
- BXN1 committed $5 billion to Crux AI.
- CoreWeave received a $2.3 billion loan from Blackstone in 2023.
- Firmus received a $10 billion credit facility co-led by Blackstone.
- Blackstone formed a $1.5 billion joint venture, Ode, with Anthropic and Hellman & Friedman.
Blackstone is actively participating in the AI boom by providing significant capital through various strategies, including loans to data centers and investments in AI models and applications. The firm's dedicated AI hub, Blackstone N1 (BXN1), led by veteran Jas Khaira, is at the forefront of these efforts. Khaira stated that Blackstone differentiates itself from traditional venture capitalists by focusing on compute financing and offering flexible capital structures. The firm claims to be the largest owner of compute outside of hyperscalers, leveraging this position to support companies. BXN1 has been instrumental in deals such as a $5 billion investment in Crux AI, a neocloud launched in partnership with Google, and backing chip startup Etched. Blackstone pioneered a financing structure that allows it to lend to venture-backed neoclouds by analyzing customer contracts and using GPUs as collateral. A notable early deal involved a $2.3 billion loan to CoreWeave in 2023, which has since ballooned to about $50 billion in debt. Blackstone also co-led a $10 billion credit facility for Australian GPU provider Firmus. Khaira acknowledged market jitters due to rising interest rates and credit spreads, which have impacted companies like CoreWeave and led Firmus to scrap its IPO. However, he downplayed fears of a widespread credit crisis, emphasizing that the debt is backed by creditworthy companies and hyperscalers. Beyond compute financing, Blackstone is involved in AI adoption through a $1.5 billion joint venture, Ode, with Anthropic and Hellman & Friedman, which provides engineers to help companies integrate AI.