American billionaire Brian Venturo’s CoreWeave bonds slide as AI debt fears mount

Bonds issued by CoreWeave, the AI cloud company co-founded by American billionaire Brian Venturo, slumped this week as investors questioned whether the company can keep paying for a data center buildout funded largely with debt.

CoreWeave bonds sold in June at a yield of 9.675% have fallen sharply in value, pushing their yield to about 15% this week, Reuters reported Friday. Bond yields rise as prices fall, and a yield at that level signals that lenders now see the company as a much riskier borrower.

Loss-making CoreWeave carries about $50 billion of debt, according to Reuters. S&P Global Ratings rates the company B+, which is below investment grade.

The stock has fallen with the bonds. CoreWeave shares dropped more than 15% on Wednesday and lost 15.1% from Monday’s open through Thursday’s close, despite a 6% gain on Thursday after a vote of confidence from partner Nvidia.

Chief Executive Michael Intrator pushed back in an internal memo seen by Reuters, telling employees that the company’s deal backlog more than covers its debt obligations. Co-founder Brannin McBee told the Financial Times that CoreWeave is seeking an investment-grade rating, which would give it access to far larger pools of capital at lower cost.

Analysts and portfolio managers told Reuters the bond selloff carries more weight than the drop in the shares. In their view, it may signal a broader reassessment of the risks in financing AI projects that could take years to produce revenue. CoreWeave’s neocloud rivals, including Nebius, Applied Digital and Iren, also fell this week.

Venturo, Intrator and McBee started CoreWeave in 2017 as a cryptocurrency mining business before turning it into a provider of cloud computing power built on Nvidia chips. Venturo, the company’s chief strategy officer, held about 9% of CoreWeave when it filed for its 2025 IPO, according to Forbes. Forbes estimated his net worth at about $3.1 billion as of Oct. 14, leaving his fortune closely tied to how the market values the company and its debt.

The next tests are CoreWeave’s coming earnings report and its next round of financing. Any new debt it issues at current yields would show how much lenders now want to keep funding its expansion.