Blackstone’s Jas Khaira downplays AI debt concerns amid market jitters

The AI boom has a debt problem, or at least the bond market thinks it might. Blackstone’s top AI executive, Jasvinder “Jas” Khaira, says the firm is not losing sleep over it. A calm voice in a jittery bond market Khaira leads Blackstone’s AI efforts through a unit known as BXN1. It pulls together a range of private equity strategies aimed at the wider AI ecosystem. He founded the firm’s N1 platform in April 2026. He is no newcomer, though: Khaira has been at Blackstone since 2004. Blackstone has numbers to back that stance. An internal AI risk review of BCRED, the firm’s private credit fund, found that under 5% of its investments face substantial AI-related headwinds. The broader market is not quite as relaxed. Tensions around AI infrastructure debt escalated in October 2026, dragging down prices on bonds tied to the sector. CoreWeave, the AI cloud provider, offers the clearest example. Its bonds fell below 80 cents on the dollar in October 2026, pushing yields close to 15%. Blackstone has not been fully shielded either. Bonds connected to Blackstone projects traded below 88 cents during 2026, as data-center debt sold off more broadly. How AI financing got so big, so fast The scale...