Nvidia's $500B Financing Deal and Wall Street's Hidden Leverage

The Financial Times reports that Apollo, Blackstone and Goldman Sachs are among firms working with Nvidia on a financing package of roughly $500 billion to fund AI data-center construction — with a companion FT analysis arguing that AI hyperscalers carry substantially more leverage than their balance sheets show. This episode covers what's confirmed (the named firms, the reported scale, the FT's leverage argument) and what isn't (Nvidia's precise role, which entities carry the debt, and whether any second outlet corroborates the terms). We work through why a chip vendor being party to the financing that buys its chips is the unusual detail, draw a limited parallel to 1870s American railroad finance — and note where it breaks, since chips depreciate far faster than track. ...