GMI Cloud, a U.S.-based data center operator and cloud partner of NVIDIA NASDAQ:NVDA, is seeking a NT$20.45 billion ($635 million) multi-tranche loan supported by customer contracts for graphics processing units. The proposed financing could become one of Asia's first known syndicated GPU-backed loans offered to banks, suggesting that contracted AI computing capacity may be emerging as a financing tool in the region. GMI Cloud is backed by Taiwan-based technology company GMI Technology and Realtek Semiconductor, a semiconductor company, while CTBC Bank is serving as the sole coordinator of the transaction. The package includes a NT$13.9 billion five-year term loan that has been launched in Taiwan's syndicated loan market.
The remaining financing consists of a NT$6.4 billion 12-month bridge term loan and a NT$150 million five-year revolving facility, both of which are expected to be provided by CTBC Bank. The borrowing is being arranged through GMI Cloud Phoenix Ltd.'s Taiwan branch and is priced at a margin of 175 basis points above Taibor. Based on the current three-month Taibor level, the interest rate would be approximately 3.43%. Participating banks can submit commitments by August 28, with signing scheduled for September 11, while a bank meeting is expected to take place on Tuesday.
The proceeds are expected to fund GMI Cloud's AI factory project in Taoyuan, Taiwan, which is supported by GPU computing-capacity leasing contracts from qualified customers. GMI Cloud agreed last year to invest $500 million in a 16-megawatt data center powered by NVIDIA's most advanced chips and servers, with the facility expected to process nearly 2 million tokens per second. Chief Executive Officer Alex Yeh has described the Taiwan facility as a potential blueprint for AI infrastructure development across Asia. Investors may view the financing as another indication of expanding regional AI demand, as Google, a global technology company, Amazon NASDAQ:AMZN, an e-commerce and cloud-computing company, and Microsoft NASDAQ:MSFT, a software and cloud-services company, seek to establish data centers across Asia.