By Trefis Team
Publication Date: 2026-10-20 09:56:00
The AI build-out is running partly on borrowed money, and borrowed money isn’t cheap: the 10-year Treasury yields 5.1%, with inflation back at 3.7%. Two AI companies show what that means for shareholders. Microsoft closed on Oct 19 just 1.8% below its 52-week high, set on Oct 13. CoreWeave is 56.3% below its own, set on Oct 29, 2025. Same AI boom, so why the gap?
Both live off AI. Microsoft is one of its biggest buyers: its capital spending, mostly chips and data centers, came to $115.9 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2026. CoreWeave is a builder. It rents out Nvidia chips to AI labs and tech companies, and pays for them largely with debt.
Here’s the odd part. CoreWeave now owes almost as much as Microsoft: $51.6 billion of total debt against $56.8 billion. Microsoft’s revenue is 44 times bigger.
A plain word: this is general education using two real companies as examples. It isn’t advice, and it isn’t a call to buy or sell either stock.
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