CoreWeave and Proofpoint sweeten terms on AI-linked debt

CoreWeave repriced a $2.6 billion leveraged loan backing additional GPU capacity for Anthropic's compute expansion, widening the spread to 5.5 percentage points over benchmark from initial talk of 4.25 to 4.5 points, and deepening the discount to 96-97 cents on the dollar from an original 99, on 29 July. The changes pushed the loan's yield to roughly 10.44 percent.

The same week, Thoma Bravo conceded tighter terms on a $5 billion refinancing for cybersecurity firm Proofpoint, arranged by Goldman Sachs, after lenders pushed the yield to close to 9.3 percent and added covenants barring the kind of collateral-stripping manoeuvres and private debt buybacks that have drawn creditor complaints elsewhere. Both deals eventually found enough investor support to proceed.

Lenders demanding a premium on AI-linked debt, rather than waving deals through, signals that financing the AI buildout is no longer assumed to be cheap.