If you've ever claimed your hot new piece of gaming hardware was an investment, then this story is for you. Companies are using Nvidia's AI GPUs as collateral in deals with banks to borrow billions of dollars to further their businesses. This means even financial institutions are willing to recognise the potential value of these cards, which must be doing wonders for Nvidia's stock.
Fluidstack is a cloud startup company based in London that's just managed to score over $10 billion in funding according to a report by The Information (via WCCFtech). The company was able to leveridge its currently held supply of Nvidia AI GPUs to secure the loan from multiple financers including Macquarie.
This model of putting cards up for collateral Fluidstack is using isn't unique. CoreWeave, a cloud AI service which just received a massive influx of high-powered Nvidia AI Blackwell Ultra racks, was one of the pioneers of this loan structure. It was able to secure up to $9.9 billion dollars by putting its Nvidia H100 AI GPUs against the loan. Supposedly it used some of that cash to secure this new shipment of hardware, which points at a weird cyclical loan arrangement.
Buy some cards, get a loan against them, buy more. Repeat. Profit?
Given how fast this tech depreciates, it seems surprising financial institutions are willing to put loans against them. There are even rumours the collateral chips are held under lock and key, so they aren't even creating value through use. Still, if they're able to secure such wads of cash in loans maybe Nvidia's AI GPUs are worth even more locked away in a drawer then they are doing actual work.
This also raises questions around what happens to these GPUs down the line. If the startups using these loans fall through its presumed they'll be sold to recap any losses for the loaning parties. And will these banks do this before they lose value and are superseded by the next piece of kit. Given the high prices of these loans there has to be a hefty amount of units backing this. One failed startup could lead to a weird market flooded with high-end AI cards.
It all seems like a risky venture, but if banks are willing to put this much money down there must be significant confidence in the value of these cards. Hopefully all this profit for Nvidia will lead to more gaming cards at reasonable prices, you know other than the RTX 5060 TI 8GB appearing. A girl can dream.
