Lambda sells insurers $1 billion of GPU debt at 6.78% for 30,000 Nvidia chips

Insurers now hold the collateral

On October 1, Lambda closed a $1.008 billion delayed-draw term loan↗ marketed to insurance companies and fixed-income investors, and the book was oversubscribed ¹. The fixed rate is 6.78%, inside the company's target range, on paper rated Baa1 by Moody's and A (low) by Morningstar DBRS ¹². The proceeds buy more than 30,000 Nvidia GPUs for three committed deployments with two investment-grade offtakers across multiple data centers ¹².

Capital draws only as clusters enter service, and the loan amortizes fully to May 30, 2033 ¹. It is secured by the servers and the contracted cash flows they produce, and J.P. Morgan arranged it alone ¹.

The rating rides on unnamed signatures

Lambda will not say who the two offtakers are. The Baa1 rides on their signatures: if GPU values break, the amortizing schedule pays lenders first and the insurers own the chips ¹. Microsoft is the reported customer behind a separate $1 billion private debt deal in August↗, per Bloomberg; the rated facilities name no one ³.

The cadence is the point: a $1 billion bank facility in May, a $926 million term loan B on August 27 at SOFR plus 3.00% with a Baa2 rating, then this, about $2.9 billion in six months ¹³⁴. Combes calls it the third new credit market Lambda has opened in 18 months ¹.

A $3 billion pre-IPO round is already in the works

Michel Combes, newly installed as chief executive, says the capital "underwrites infrastructure in decades, not quarters" and has funded a private company "on the strength of our customer contracts" ¹⁵. Behind the debt sit a $5.43 billion post-money valuation from November 2025 and reported talks for a $3 billion pre-IPO round ³.

Everyone else pays the gap

Below the top tier, the market is splitting, not tightening. Banks and technology companies have raised more than $400 billion of AI-linked debt worldwide this year ³. At the bottom of the stack, about $18 billion of loans tied to Oracle's Project Jupiter campus were quoted at 89 to 91 cents↗, with syndicate sales stalled and Oracle one notch above junk ⁶.

CleanSpark's data-center subsidiary paid 7.875% for $2.276 billion of secured notes on September 25↗ ⁷. IREN counts about $14 billion of funding capacity against a $25 billion to $30 billion fiscal-2027 build ⁸. The roughly 110 basis points between Lambda's 6.78% and CleanSpark's 7.875% is what two signed, rated customers are worth ¹⁷.

The rule for the sector: model AI capex at 6.78% only where the offtake contracts are rated and signed, and treat GPU paper clearing near investment grade without two rated offtakers as mispriced. Lambda targets 3 gigawatts by 2030 ⁵. Watch the next deal for whether the offtakers get named, and what this paper is worth when its chips are three years old.