CoreWeave credit default swaps hit distress levels as its bonds yield nearly 16%

CNBC reports the yield to maturity on CoreWeave's 9.75% bonds due 2031 reached 15.78%. Its unsecured notes due 2032 slipped below 80 cents on the dollar, a yield near 15% against about 9% in the summer. Startup Fortune puts the five-year credit default swap spread at 643 basis points, nearly double its level days earlier. As of June 30, CoreWeave carried roughly $35B of debt against $5.5B in cash, and added a $2B convertible note in September. CEO Mike Intrator told staff in a memo that the market was acting irrationally and that a backlog of about $104B more than covers its debt. Forbes notes a hot inflation print pushed the 10-year Treasury yield toward 5.3%, and CoreWeave lost $626M in Q2 with $640M of net interest expense. The move follows reports that banks are trying to sell down AI data center loans. For AI companies that rent GPU capacity from neoclouds, this is a counterparty question: a lender that pays 15% to borrow may pass costs on, slow expansion or tighten terms.