Nvidia Faces Scrutiny as Neocloud Slump Strains AI Backstop Guarantees

Nvidia faces heightened credit scrutiny as its role backstopping AI infrastructure encounters market turbulence. The chipmaker holds $36 billion in off-balance-sheet AI cloud agreements and up to $105 billion guaranteeing an OpenAI Ohio data center, contributing to over $153 billion in fiscal 2026 off-balance-sheet liabilities estimated by New Constructs. This follows steep October equity losses exceeding 30% for backed neoclouds CoreWeave, Nebius, and IREN, alongside spiking credit spreads. Tech sector strains earlier pushed five-year credit default swap spreads to record highs, including 126 basis points for Nvidia.