They no longer trust their own debt

Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are looking for ways to protect themselves from the debt they have extended to build AI data centers, according to Ed Zitron’s latest report in which he makes a notable criticism of the boom of AI and the stock market in which debt and complacent analysis are inflating an unsustainable bubble, according to their analysis.

• Both banks are contemplating “synthetic risk transfers.”
• It is a mechanism that allows the credit exposure of loans to be sold to other investors while keeping the loans on their books.
• Deutsche Bank even is considering betting short against actions related to AI.

Why is it important. These movements clearly show a certain distrust in the economic viability of the infrastructure they are financing. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and MUFG have participated in the world’s largest data center financing transactions, including various loans to CoreWeave and the stargate projectsbut now they are looking to reduce their exposure to those same assets.

The figures. At least $178.5 billion in data center financing was closed in the United States alone in 2025, almost triple the amount in 2024.

CoreWeave, one of the largest operators, carries $25 billion in debt on estimated revenues of $5.35 billion, losing hundreds of millions each quarter.

The context. AI data centers are powered by a circular financing model:

1. They sign contracts with their clients before having the physical infrastructure.
2. They use these contracts as collateral to obtain bank debt.
3. They buy NVIDIA GPUs and build facilities that take between one and three years to be operational.

Only then do they start generating monthly income. If construction is delayed or the client cannot pay, the loan is up in the air.

Between the lines. The banks that have fueled the bubble are now covering their backs.

Yes, but. Banks argue that these hedges are normal risk management practices. The problem is that they are hedging themselves against loans that they themselves structured and approved, many of them to clients whose ability to pay is, at the very least, uncertain.

CoreWeave has offered OpenAI net 360 payment terms (one year from invoice to settle), depending on your loan agreement. If OpenAI, which needs to raise $100 billion to continue operating, decides not to pay, CoreWeave automatically defaults on its credit obligations. And CoreWeave is probably the best-funded operator in the IT industry. neoclouds.

The money trail. NVIDIA announced in October that would guarantee $860 million in lease obligations from a partner in exchange for warrantswith 470 million deposited in a guarantee account.

CoreWeave’s third-quarter balance sheet includes a “non-current restricted cash” item of $477.5 million. NVIDIA also signed a 6.3 billion contract with CoreWeave to buy the capacity that CoreWeave fails to sell until 2032.

Go deeper. The banks that are hedging their bets are the same ones that have funded most of the global AI infrastructure. They are not selling the risk of any loan, but the risk of data centers that may never turn on, or that if they do, will serve customers who burn billions without generating profits.

When the financiers of boom show signs of having stopped believing in boomit is worth paying attention.

In Xataka | We have reached a point where not even the CEOs of Google or Microsoft deny that we have an AI bubble

Featured image | İsmail Enes Ayhan