贷款人对数据中心债务感到饱和。当人工智能基础设施公司Volta最近出去为挪威的一个数据中心筹集50亿美元时，这笔交易看起来与今年迄今为止完成的超过4500亿美元的人工智能相关债务交易并没有什么不同。
Lenders are feeling maxed out on data-center debt. When Volta, an AI infrastructure company, went out recently to raise $5 billion for a data center in Norway, the deal didn’t seem that different from the more than $450 billion in AI-related debt deals done so far this year.
但随着Volta的摩根大通和高盛银行家们出去推销这笔交易时，一些投资者表示反对，称他们已经对数据中心债务饱和，要求提供更多担保和更高的利率。知情人士表示，该交易预计将在本周晚些时候定价，利率至少为11%，对于数据中心项目来说异常高，且以阿波罗15亿美元的订单为基础。
But as Volta’s bankers at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs went out to sell it, some investors pushed back, saying they’re full up on data-center debt and demanding more security and a higher interest rate. The deal is expected to price later this week with a rate of at least 11%, unusually high for a data-center project, anchored by a $1.5 billion order from Apollo, people familiar with the matter said.
该交易的承诺将在本周到期，贷款人仍在就分配问题进行讨论，因此融资细节可能会发生变化。
Commitments for the deal are due this week and lenders are still in discussion about allocations, so details about the financing could change.
Volta的交易是对人工智能融资世界的一次脉搏检查。交易仍在进行，但不如今年早些时候那样顺利，利率更高，条款谈判更为激烈，投资者和银行家表示。
Volta’s deal is a pulse check on the AI-financing world. Deals are still getting done, but less smoothly than they were earlier this year, with higher rates and more heavily negotiated terms, investors and bankers say.
Volta成立于2月，挪威数据中心是其首个重要项目。一些投资者因其缺乏业绩记录而犹豫，而另一些投资者则对Volta依赖Anthropic购买数据中心的大部分算力感到不安。Anthropic对贷款人几乎不提供财务信息，其确切的义务水平让一些投资者感到不安。
Volta was founded in February and the Norway data center is its first significant project. Some investors balked at its lack of a track record, while others were unnerved by Volta’s reliance on Anthropic to buy much of the data center’s compute. Anthropic doesn’t share much financial information with lenders and the exact level of its obligations struck some investors as unsettled.
为了克服这种顾虑，该交易包含了一项不寻常的条款：如果Anthropic能够获得投资级信用评级，Volta所承担的利率将会下降，知情人士表示。《金融时报》上个月报道称，Anthropic和OpenAI的IPO顾问正在游说信用评级机构，以获得蓝筹股地位，这对于像两家人工智能实验室这样不盈利的公司来说几乎是前所未有的。
The deal includes an unusual provision to overcome that skittishness: The interest rate charged to Volta will decrease if Anthropic can get an investment-grade credit rating, some of the people said. The Financial Times reported last month that Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s IPO advisers were lobbying credit-rating agencies for blue-chip status, which would be almost unheard-of for companies as unprofitable as both AI labs are.
摩根大通和高盛还为Volta承销了一笔13亿美元的定期贷款。
JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have also underwritten a $1.3 billion term loan to Volta.
摩根大通、高盛和阿波罗拒绝置评。伏尔塔未回应置评请求。Anthropic 未回应置评请求。
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Apollo declined to comment. Volta didn’t respond to a request for comment. Anthropic didn’t respond to requests for comment.
摩根士丹利的一份报告称，由于监管和政治挑战影响数据中心建设，九月是今年人工智能融资发行量第二低的月份。分析师表示，第四季度预计将进一步放缓。
September has been the second-lowest month this year for issuance for AI financings, as regulatory and political challenges weigh on data center construction, according to a report from Morgan Stanley. The fourth quarter is expected to slow down further, the analysts said.