Singapore’s United Overseas Bank Ltd., which jointly underwrote Zankore’s US$3.1 billion loan with four other banks in September, is now leading talks to raise a fresh US$6 billion from banks, according to Zankore Chairman Vikram Sinha as reported by Bloomberg yesterday.
Zankore, an Indonesia-based AI platform, wants to work with banks and a bank syndicate as it aims to raise its AI data center capacity tenfold to 1 gigawatt, Sinha said at a conference last month.
In September, Zankore secured a US$ 3.1 billion loan to develop an AI Factory of up to 1GW in Indonesia, starting initially with 100MW.
In recent months, banks played key roles in GPU loans to Zankore, GMI Cloud and PaleBlueDot AI.
Currently, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, Banco Santander SA and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. are evaluating GPU-linked loans, according to Bloomberg quoting people familiar with the matter. Representatives for Citigroup, Barclays and Deutsche Bank declined to comment while JPMorgan, Santander and SMBC did not immediately respond.
So far, the main players are mostly global investment banks because of their expertise in the complex structures, according to people familiar with ongoing talks, as per Bloomberg.
At least six bankers and advisers are in talks or have knowledge there would be more deals linked to GPUs across Asia, according to Bloomberg quoting sources who declined to be named. But concerns remain over how to value the chips in addition to geopolitical and AI risks. Chips face rapid depreciation, technology obsolescence and volatile rental rates, a banker reportedly said.
There is also the risk posed by circular financing when Nvidia Corp, the chip supplier, agrees to purchase any unsold computing capacity should customer contracts with its partners like GMI Cloud and Zankore fall through.