CoreWeave closes down 15.5% as bond yields near 15% on AI borrowing fears
CoreWeave shares closed down 15.5% at $65.78 on Wednesday, their lowest close since July 29, while yields on its 9.625% notes due 2032 rose to about 14.8% and its 9.75% notes due 2031 to roughly 14.9%, as investors grew worried that technology companies are borrowing too heavily to build AI infrastructure. S&P Global Ratings put CoreWeave's overall credit rating at B+, a junk grade, and an analyst noted its capital spending rivals that of hyperscalers despite a far smaller balance sheet. CEO Mike Intrator called the market reaction "irrational" in a memo obtained by CNBC and Reuters and said the company's unfulfilled order backlog is large enough to cover all its debt obligations. Oracle fell 8.83% the same day, Nebius lost 10.08%, IREN 12.18%, TeraWulf 12.64% and Applied Digital 9.43%; Nvidia dropped 3.16% and TSMC's ADR 3.4%, and per Techmeme's summary Dell fell 11.3%.
It is a stress test for an AI buildout financed heavily by debt: if borrowing costs keep climbing, neocloud expansion could slow.