--- title: "Learning from NVIDIA stimulates chip sales, AMD guarantees loans for \"AI Cloud\"" description: "AMD unleashes financial \"hard moves\" to expand market share! It provides a guarantee for a $300 million chip purchase loan for the startup Crusoe, promising to \"backstop\" chip rentals when there are n" type: "news" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/276401504.md" published_at: "2026-02-20T01:50:33.000Z" --- # Learning from NVIDIA stimulates chip sales, AMD guarantees loans for "AI Cloud" > AMD unleashes financial "hard moves" to expand market share! It provides a guarantee for a $300 million chip purchase loan for the startup Crusoe, promising to "backstop" chip rentals when there are no customers. While this strategy, which replicates NVIDIA's "rental cloud" approach, may boost sales in the short term, it also exposes AMD to greater risk during a slowdown in AI demand **AMD is using financial "backing" to accelerate AI chip shipments in order to catch up with NVIDIA's leading advantage in data center AI chips.** According to The Information citing informed sources, **AMD will provide substantial guarantees for a $300 million loan to the data center and cloud services startup Crusoe**, with Goldman Sachs as the lender. **The funds will be used to purchase AMD's AI chips** and install them in a data center in Ohio. Informed sources stated that the loan will be secured by chips and related equipment. As part of the guarantee arrangement, if Crusoe cannot find customers willing to use these chips, such as AI developers, **AMD will agree to rent these chips from Crusoe, thereby providing "demand backing" for Crusoe.** This approach continues the path previously promoted by NVIDIA to expand "rental cloud" services, and has sparked controversy among investors: **Such structures may boost chip sales in the short term but will expose chip manufacturers to greater risks when AI demand slows.** ## **Transaction Structure: $300 million loan secured by chips and equipment, AMD promises "rental backing"** According to The Information citing informed sources, the $300 million loan obtained by Crusoe comes from Goldman Sachs, secured by AMD chips and related equipment, which Crusoe will deploy in its data center in Ohio. This data center is being built by Canadian developer 5C, supported by Brookfield. Informed sources indicated that **the core of AMD's guarantee lies in the "last renter" arrangement, meaning that when Crusoe cannot find external customers to absorb the computing power, AMD will rent these chips.** This arrangement helps Crusoe lower the loan interest rate to about 6%, significantly below the financing conditions it might obtain without backing. ## **Replicating NVIDIA's Path: Using funds and commitments to nurture "rental cloud" and drive chip demand** The Information pointed out that **NVIDIA previously leveraged its stronger financial strength to support a number of cloud companies renting its chips to developers, enhancing these companies' financing capabilities through investments and capacity purchase commitments.** Among them, **NVIDIA invested in CoreWeave and agreed to purchase computing capacity that CoreWeave could not sell to other customers.** CoreWeave established its first debt financing arrangement in 2023, amounting to $2.3 billion, supported by NVIDIA chips and customer contracts. Similar financing is also spreading. London-based Nscale announced this month that it has secured a $1.4 billion loan from institutions including Pimco and Blue Owl Capital, with a spokesperson stating that the loan is secured by company contracts and chips. ## **Pressure to Catch Up: CEO sets share target, AMD intensifies unconventional promotional tactics** This Crusoe financing arrangement highlights that AMD is using more non-traditional methods to compete for the AI chip market. The Information reported that AMD CEO Lisa Su has stated that **she hopes to achieve annual sales of AI chips reaching "tens of billions of dollars" next year and capture at least one-tenth of the market share.** \*\* The report also mentioned that Crusoe's debt financing occurred after a transaction with AMD last October. **At that time, AMD reached an agreement with OpenAI to sell chips that could be used over the next few years, totaling up to 6 gigawatts of power.** As part of the deal, **OpenAI has the option to gradually purchase up to 10% of AMD shares upon reaching specific milestones.** Cloud vendors are also following suit. Piotr Tomasik, COO of cloud startup TensorWave, which rents AMD chips, stated that **all parties are "exhausting every strategy" to expand market share**, and noted that TensorWave is also advancing its debt issuance, but did not disclose further details. ## **Controversy and Exposure: Risks Return to Manufacturers After Sales are "Financialized"** Investors criticize transactions like those between AMD and NVIDIA, arguing that **financing and backstop clauses may "artificially" inflate sales figures while reallocating the risks of slowing growth back to chip manufacturers and related parties.** **For Crusoe, this type of financing provides ammunition for expansion and preparation for an IPO.** The Information reported that Crusoe is valued by investors at around $10 billion and may initiate its public listing as early as this year. Crusoe had previously projected that its annual cash burn would be between $2 billion and $4 billion from last year until the early part of the next decade, while planning to achieve annual revenue of $18 billion in its cloud business by the end of this decade. For the market, AMD's recent action of "guaranteeing loans for AI cloud" **could accelerate the pace at which its AI chips enter data centers, and also means a deeper binding with its customers, increasing the sensitivity of its performance to fluctuations in AI computing power demand.** ### Related Stocks - [SMH.US - VanEck Semiconductor ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SMH.US.md) - [AMDL.US - GraniteShares 2x Long AMD Daily ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMDL.US.md) - [PSI.US - Invesco Semiconductors ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/PSI.US.md) - [SOXQ.US - Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SOXQ.US.md) - [XSD.US - SPDR S&P Semicon](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/XSD.US.md) - [NVDY.US - YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDY.US.md) - [NVDU.US - Direxion Daily NVDA Bull 2X Shares](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDU.US.md) - [SOXX.US - iShares Semiconductor ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SOXX.US.md) - [NVDA.US - NVIDIA](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDA.US.md) - [NVDL.US - GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDL.US.md) ## Related News & Research | Title | Description | URL | |-------|-------------|-----| | 黄仁勋预告 “前所未见” 的芯片新品，下一代 Feynman 架构或成焦点 | 黄仁勋预告今年的 GTC 大会上发布” 世界从未见过” 的全新芯片产品，分析认为新品可能涉及 Rubin 系列衍生产品或更具革命性的 Feynman 架构芯片，市场预期 Feynman 架构将针对推理场景进行深度优化。 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276310964.md) | | 为 AI 交易 “背书”！OpenAI 正敲定新一轮融资：以 8300 亿美元估值募资高达 1000 亿美元 | OpenAI 正以 8300 亿美元估值推进新一轮融资，目标筹集 1000 亿美元。软银拟领投 300 亿美元，亚马逊和英伟达可能各投 500 亿及 300 亿美元，微软拟投数十亿美元。本轮融资是 OpenAI 自去年秋季公司制改革以来的首 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276298180.md) | | 华尔街大佬 Tepper 押注 AI：美光持仓激增 200%，新买韩国 ETF | 对冲基金大佬 Tepper 去年四季度精准狙击 AI 芯片赛道，豪掷逾 6 亿美元重仓美光科技和韩国芯片 ETF，今年已斩获约 30% 回报。全球内存短缺叠加 AI 算力狂潮，其芯片押注与软件股暴跌形成冰火两重天。 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276213747.md) | | “这很难，但我相信你们”！黄仁勋上周宴请 SK 海力士工程师，亲自敬酒，敦促 “无延迟交付 HBM4” | 英伟达 CEO 黄仁勋罕见 “亲自出马”，在硅谷韩式餐厅宴请 30 多名工程师，敦促 SK 海力士按时交付第六代 HBM4。随着三星率先出货搅动战局，这场关乎下一代 AI 芯片 Vera Rubin 成败的供应链争夺战已进入白热化，SK 海 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276298764.md) | | 机构 “最超配” 闪迪，“最低配” 英伟达 | 据摩根士丹利最新的统计：“机构对美国大型科技股的低配程度是 17 年来最大的” 相比 2025 年 Q4 的标普 500 指数权重，“$NVDA 仍然是机构低配程度最大的大型科技股，其次是苹果、微软、亚马逊和博通，而存储巨头闪迪则是 “最超 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276289765.md) | --- > **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.