Nvidia's shares have held up while Broadcom and Oracle have fallen sharply, even though credit-default swap spreads have widened across several major AI companies. Nvidia's spreads remain far below those of the other two.
Nvidia's shares have held up, while Broadcom and Oracle have fallen sharply as credit-default swap spreads widen across AI companies. Crypto Briefing reports that the market is no longer treating all AI infrastructure names as one trade.
Broadcom and Oracle hit records
Usually, widening CDS spreads signal that the market is pricing in more credit risk. By early October 2026, Broadcom's five-year CDS hit a new high of 136 basis points.
Oracle's reached a record 261 basis points, and both moves followed fresh financing announcements. Oracle's CDS had sat at approximately 144 basis points earlier in the year. That move coincided with a downgrade from S&P, and the stock has fallen around 35% year-to-date.
Nvidia's spreads stay lower
Nvidia's CDS also widened, though MarketWatch's opinion column says it is hard to imagine its five-year CDS reflecting much credit risk given revenue and earnings growth and the stock's resilience. Its five-year CDS hit a record near 82 basis points in late July 2026.
Since then, Nvidia's spreads have stayed in a range of 80 to 87 basis points, still far below where Oracle and Broadcom trade.
Debt loads and customer spending
Crypto Briefing reports that Oracle and Broadcom are borrowing heavily to build and finance the infrastructure itself. If returns on that infrastructure disappoint, the debt stays on their books.
The risk for Nvidia, according to Crypto Briefing, is that its resilience depends partly on its customers' ability to keep spending. CDS spreads for Meta and Alphabet set records in July 2026, a sign that worry about AI financing spread across the industry.
Crypto Briefing lists whether Nvidia's spreads break out of their 80 to 87 basis point range among the indicators to track.
Sources: MarketWatch (snippet-based), Crypto Briefing
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