{ "generatedAt": "2026-10-26T04:10:47Z", "disclaimer": "Analysis and opinion, not investment advice.", "part": 19, "slug": "the-interest-bill-comes-first", "url": "https://deepstack.ltd/sides/the-interest-bill-comes-first/grid/", "api": "https://deepstack.ltd/api/v1/sides/the-interest-bill-comes-first/grid.json", "csv": "https://deepstack.ltd/sides/the-interest-bill-comes-first/grid.csv", "sidesUrl": "https://deepstack.ltd/sides/the-interest-bill-comes-first/", "story": { "headline": "The Interest Bill Comes First", "url": "https://deepstack.ltd/stories/the-interest-bill-comes-first/", "api": "https://deepstack.ltd/api/v1/stories/the-interest-bill-comes-first.json" }, "question": "Can Oracle and the neoclouds carry the buildout they signed?", "license": "DeepStack, https://deepstack.ltd/sides/the-interest-bill-comes-first/grid/; quotations under fair use, clipped to 250 characters; cite the canonical URL", "clip": 250, "count": 14, "claims": 29, "columns": [ { "id": "main", "question": "Can Oracle and the neoclouds carry the buildout they signed?", "url": "https://deepstack.ltd/sides/the-interest-bill-comes-first/" } ], "rows": [ { "name": "CoreWeave", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/companies/coreweave/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-contracts-pay-the-debt", "label": "The contracts pay the debt", "claims": [ { "claim": "CoreWeave presents its second quarter as the point where scale converted into operating leverage: revenue of 2.6 billion dollars up 112 percent year over year, revenue backlog of 104.2 billion dollars up 246 percent, and adjusted operating income…", "date": "2026-08-11", "url": "https://financialmodelingprep.com/earning-call-transcript/CRWV/2026-q2" }, { "claim": "A contract signed for A100 capacity, an architecture introduced in 2020, extends into 2029 at what management calls an attractive price, and the company states it remains largely sold out of prior generations of NVIDIA GPUs alongside current SKUs.", "date": "2026-08-11", "url": "https://financialmodelingprep.com/earning-call-transcript/CRWV/2026-q2" } ] } ] }, { "name": "Nebius", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/companies/nebius/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-contracts-pay-the-debt", "label": "The contracts pay the debt", "claims": [ { "claim": "Contracted power was raised to five gigawatts by the end of 2026, with almost all of it coming online over the following three to three and a half years, while connected power guidance for the year remains eight hundred megawatts to one gigawatt.", "date": "2026-08-12", "url": "https://financialmodelingprep.com/earning-call-transcript/NBIS/2026-q2" } ] }, { "question": "main", "side": "crossing", "label": "Voices that cross sides", "claims": [ { "claim": "50-60% of capex prepaid; expects GPU-backed financing too.", "date": null, "url": "https://financialmodelingprep.com/earning-call-transcript/NBIS/2026-q2" } ] } ] }, { "name": "Clark Tang", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/clark-tang/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-contracts-pay-the-debt", "label": "The contracts pay the debt", "claims": [ { "claim": "On useful-life/underwritability fears: CoreWeave disclosed contracting 6-year-old A100 silicon through 2029 and pushed a 25% price increase on its fleet in July, indicating the collateral ages more like an aircraft than a smartphone, contrary to…", "date": "2026-08-12", "url": "https://taekim.substack.com/p/nvidia-is-speedrunning-the-creation" } ] } ] }, { "name": "Ren", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/ren/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-contracts-pay-the-debt", "label": "The contracts pay the debt", "claims": [ { "claim": "NBIS is the exception among NeoClouds because it behaves closer to a hyperscaler than the rest of the group, with hyperscaler free cash flow rather than needing equity, customer prepayments or debt to fund capex.", "date": "2026-08-03", "url": "https://renstocks.substack.com/p/weekly-update-macro-port-july-27" } ] } ] }, { "name": "Erik Townsend", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/erik-townsend/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-contracts-pay-the-debt", "label": "The contracts pay the debt", "claims": [ { "claim": "Hyperscalers have cash for the coupons.", "date": null, "url": null } ] } ] }, { "name": "Kakashii", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/kakashii/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-cash-does-not-cover-it", "label": "The cash does not cover it", "claims": [ { "claim": "Even if CoreWeave extended the useful life of GPUs from six years to twelve and Nvidia's gross margin fell from more than 70 percent to 35 percent with the resulting price reduction passing fully to CoreWeave, the company would still report a…", "date": "2026-08-20", "url": "https://kakashiii111.substack.com/p/the-nvidia-spv-series-part-2-coreweave" }, { "claim": "CoreWeave spent $14.12 billion in cash on property and equipment in the first half of 2026 while operating cash flow was only $3.66 billion, meaning operating cash flow covered only 26 percent of capital spending and after capital spending, cash…", "date": "2026-08-20", "url": "https://kakashiii111.substack.com/p/the-nvidia-spv-series-part-2-coreweave" } ] }, { "question": "main", "side": "the-collateral-ages-faster", "label": "The collateral ages faster", "claims": [ { "claim": "Oracle's ending cash balance of 38.934B was overwhelmingly supported not by core operations but by ATM equity issuance (19.909B, 51.1% of ending cash) and customer prepayments plus other deferred revenue (15.36B combined), together equal to 90.6%…", "date": "2026-09-24", "url": "https://kakashiii111.substack.com/p/oracle-hyperscaler-or-neocloud-a" }, { "claim": "Unlike Amazon, Google and Microsoft, which had strong free cash flow, strong balance sheets and little or no debt pre-AI era letting them own their datacenters and equipment, Oracle entered the AI era already carrying dozens of billions in debt…", "date": "2026-09-24", "url": "https://kakashiii111.substack.com/p/oracle-hyperscaler-or-neocloud-a" } ] }, { "question": "main", "side": "crossing", "label": "Voices that cross sides", "claims": [ { "claim": "CoreWeave's cash covers a quarter of capex; its GPUs age faster.", "date": null, "url": "https://kakashiii111.substack.com/p/the-nvidia-spv-series-part-2-coreweave" } ] } ] }, { "name": "JunkBondInvestor", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/junkbondinvestor/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-cash-does-not-cover-it", "label": "The cash does not cover it", "claims": [ { "claim": "Obsolescence for credit purposes usually means the building needs a second construction project before it can be leased or financed again, so 'upgradeable' does not solve the credit problem when the balloon comes due before the work can be finished.", "date": "2026-07-06", "url": "https://www.junkbondinvestor.com/p/credit-weekly-the-residual-may-be" }, { "claim": "The July loan repricing showed the shift: CoreWeave sought $2.6 billion on July 20, launched at 425-450 bps at 99 cents, and cleared Friday at 550 over at 97, leaving lenders around 10.4% versus the mid-8s first shown.", "date": "2026-08-03", "url": "https://www.junkbondinvestor.com/p/credit-weekly-which-market-is-following" } ] }, { "question": "main", "side": "the-collateral-ages-faster", "label": "The collateral ages faster", "claims": [ { "claim": "The wide spread range in AI infrastructure reflects where the creditor sits in the capital stack rather than one asset pricing differently: senior datacenter ABS can clear around 120bps on lease cash flows, tenant credit, collateral and…", "date": "2026-06-28", "url": "https://www.junkbondinvestor.com/p/credit-weekly-the-anatomy-of-ai-infrastructure" }, { "claim": "The borrowers actually exposed are those whose interest resets faster than their cash earnings can improve, meaning companies with contracted or reimbursed pricing, thin margins, and costs that can't be passed through to the customer; healthcare…", "date": "2026-09-20", "url": "https://www.junkbondinvestor.com/p/credit-weekly-who-the-hike-hits" } ] } ] }, { "name": "Moses Sternstein", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/moses-sternstein/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-cash-does-not-cover-it", "label": "The cash does not cover it", "claims": [ { "claim": "For CoreWeave, substantial revenue growth is offset by even larger capital expenditures, along with depreciation costs on chips exceeding half of revenues and rising interest expense on debt used for buildout.", "date": "2026-08-14", "url": "https://www.a16z.news/p/charts-of-the-week-head-in-the-neoclouds" }, { "claim": "Neoclouds remain far smaller than hyperscalers in absolute revenue, with CoreWeave taking approximately 25 quarters to achieve what AWS generated by quarter 40 since launch.", "date": "2026-08-14", "url": "https://www.a16z.news/p/charts-of-the-week-head-in-the-neoclouds" } ] } ] }, { "name": "Oguz Erkan", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/oguz-erkan/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-cash-does-not-cover-it", "label": "The cash does not cover it", "claims": [ { "claim": "The loop's binding constraint is capex finance: hyperscaler free cash flow may go negative in 2027 and investors dislike leverage contingent on speculative returns, as the depressed valuations of Oracle and CoreWeave show, so continued spending…", "date": "2026-08-06", "url": "https://www.capitalist-letters.com/p/its-time-to-be-bullish-on-compute" }, { "claim": "The private credit stress affecting the industry is driven mainly by private credit funds having deployed large amounts of money to software companies that are now struggling to acquire new business due to AI disruption and to refinance debt, but…", "date": "2026-09-20", "url": null } ] } ] }, { "name": "Gaetano", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/gaetano/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-cash-does-not-cover-it", "label": "The cash does not cover it", "claims": [ { "claim": "CoreWeave exemplifies this pattern, having raised enormous amounts of debt to build infrastructure it then rents to customers, which resembles someone borrowing today because they believe customers will keep needing capacity tomorrow, echoing the…", "date": "2026-09-07", "url": null } ] } ] }, { "name": "Kris", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/kris/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-cash-does-not-cover-it", "label": "The cash does not cover it", "claims": [ { "claim": "Kris has always said that if one pin falls among the AI companies many others would follow; they mostly thought of OpenAI, but consider Oracle a weak link in the chain as well.", "date": "2026-09-28", "url": null }, { "claim": "Oracle sent a force majeure notice on Project Jupiter, the New Mexico AI data center tied to the $400 billion Stargate project it started with OpenAI, SoftBank, Nvidia and other partners, and Kris hopes this is in hindsight not the first crack.", "date": "2026-09-28", "url": null } ] } ] }, { "name": "Michael Burry", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/michael-burry/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "the-collateral-ages-faster", "label": "The collateral ages faster", "claims": [ { "claim": "On a day the AI trade ran hot, propelled by CoreWeave's banner revenue, the author read Nebius as what the top of a boom looks like and added to short positions in Oracle, Micron and Nebius.", "date": "2026-08-12", "url": "https://michaeljburry.substack.com/p/trading-post-august-12-2026" }, { "claim": "Nebius extended its server depreciation schedule from four years to five this year even though its own deal pricing implies roughly 50 percent annual decay; customers that would not quit depreciating are what extended the bust twenty-five years ago.", "date": "2026-08-12", "url": "https://michaeljburry.substack.com/p/trading-post-august-12-2026" } ] } ] }, { "name": "Daniel Romero", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/people/daniel-romero/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "crossing", "label": "Voices that cross sides", "claims": [ { "claim": "IREN has sold out its 2026 capacity and pre-sold around one-quarter of the capacity it plans to bring online in H1 2027, with demand, power, and land no longer being constraints.", "date": "2026-08-29", "url": "https://hypertechinvest.com/p/am-i-buying-iren-q4-earnings-thoughts" }, { "claim": "IREN has pursued vertical integration from day one and has the most impressive power portfolio of the three companies at a fraction of the market cap, whereas Nebius and CoreWeave have encountered problems with leasing.", "date": "2026-08-29", "url": "https://hypertechinvest.com/p/am-i-buying-iren-q4-earnings-thoughts" } ] } ] }, { "name": "IREN", "entity": "https://deepstack.ltd/companies/iren/", "positions": [ { "question": "main", "side": "crossing", "label": "Voices that cross sides", "claims": [ { "claim": "Recent customer prepayments represent 45-55% of GPU capex, though the company notes prepayment terms vary by contract and there can be no assurance that future contracts will include prepayments or similar terms.", "date": "2026-08-27", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1878848/000187884826000051/irenreportsfy26results.htm#ex99-1" }, { "claim": "The company states it deliberately allocates capacity across a diversified customer base of hyperscalers, enterprises, AI developers and frontier labs, with 2026 capacity largely sold out, 2027 in late-stage discussions over a significant portion…", "date": "2026-08-27", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1878848/000187884826000051/irenreportsfy26results.htm#ex99-1" } ] } ] } ] }