Lenders value GPU collateral on two different measures. Bank-supervision guidance for asset-based loans asks for the net value the assets would bring in an orderly sale, set by a party independent of the loan [1]. GPU credit agreements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission work from cost instead. CoreWeave's 2024 facility limits each loan to a percentage of the servers' depreciated purchase price, and the percentage follows the credit rating of the customer whose contract the servers serve [10, 11].
This note follows the value definitions of supervision and appraisal into those agreements, then covers residual value and monitoring. The supervisory text, the asset-based lending handbook of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), covers that lending in general, mostly receivables and inventory, and is not written for GPUs [1].
What counts as GPU collateral
In the filed deals the servers sit inside a wider security package. CoreWeave's 2024 delayed draw term loan, known as DDTL 2.0, is secured, subject to exceptions, by substantially all of its borrowing subsidiary's assets and a pledge of all of that subsidiary's equity [10]. SharonAI's facility of up to US$356 million, reported on 1 October 2026, adds share security over each borrower and its holding company, charges over project accounts and assignments of material project contracts [16]. WhiteFiber's lender holds first-ranking security over designated assets "including GPU servers, CPU servers, IB switches and equipment accessories", with material assets bought later to be secured within 60 days [18]. How leases, loans and contract-backed facilities divide ownership and risk is set out in GPU financing structures explained.
Market value, orderly and forced liquidation value
The OCC handbook defines market value as, generally, the most likely price in a competitive, open market, with reasonable exposure and willing, informed buyers and sellers [1]. Liquidation value assumes a sale without reasonable market exposure and a seller under duress. An orderly liquidation allows a brief marketing period, and a forced liquidation value rests on an auction sale [1]. Net orderly liquidation value (NOLV) is what assets would bring in an orderly sale over "generally six to nine months", set by a competent party independent of the credit. The handbook names it as the standard for collateral valuation, "not cost or retail value" [1].
The American Society of Appraisers' machinery definitions, as one valuation firm quotes them, draw the same line. Orderly liquidation value allows "a reasonable period of time to find a purchaser", and forced liquidation value assumes a properly advertised public auction. In both, the seller is compelled to sell as-is, where-is, and both are gross amounts [5]. The OCC handbook deducts the costs of liquidating collateral through reserves [1].
American Compute, which sells GPU appraisals, put a used eight-GPU HGX H100 server at $195,000 fair market value, $173,000 orderly liquidation value and $126,000 forced liquidation value in October 2026 [33], and at about $216,000 installed on the rent it earns, from a limited sample [34]. It sets orderly value at 89% of fair market value and forced value at 65%, and describes those two values as its own mapping to the appraisers' value definitions, not a credentialed appraisal [33]. In bankruptcy, a secured creditor's interest is valued in light of the purpose of the valuation and the proposed use or disposition of the property [9]. Whether the servers stay in service or are sold changes the value that counts.
What a value rests on
A value is only as strong as the prices behind it. American Compute's October 2026 report found asks for used H100 SXM GPUs at 1.16 times realized prices [33], and its page on installed value labels its removed values listing-based [34]. Nscale's August 2026 credit agreement prices replacement servers from bona fide written quotations by unaffiliated suppliers [15]. The Basel capital framework lets a bank count physical collateral only where it can show liquid markets for disposing of it and well established, publicly available market prices [3]. American Compute writes that data center GPUs have no central auction house [33]. How listings, quotes and sales differ as evidence is set out in evidence classes in GPU pricing.
From value to loan size
An advance rate is the share of collateral value a lender lends. The OCC handbook defines margin as the difference between collateral's market value and the amount advanced, and sets the borrowing base by applying a margin or advance rate to each type of collateral [1]. Less liquid collateral merits more conservative advances, and equipment is generally limited to a small share of a borrowing base [1]. The handbook's own percentages are for other assets: up to 65% of the book value of eligible inventory or 80% of its NOLV, and 70% to 85% of eligible receivables [1].
Bank capital rules apply their own cut. Under the Basel foundation internal-ratings approach, other eligible physical collateral takes a 40% haircut, so it counts at 60% of its current value (derived), and the secured part carries a 25% loss given default [2].
The filed GPU agreements size loans on cost and on cash flow. Nscale's August 2026 agreement lends the lesser of 90% of GPU capital expenditures and the amount that keeps a projected debt service coverage ratio of at least 1.30x on every remaining payment date [15]. SemiAnalysis reported in July 2026 that banks look for at least 1.3x coverage in a backstop case, which it said typically corresponds to a 70% to 80% loan-to-value ratio [32]. SharonAI's agreement measures gross loan-to-value as loans outstanding over the server purchase price less straight-line depreciation, tested quarterly from 31 March 2027 against a redacted maximum [16, 17].
Depreciated cost and customer credit
CoreWeave's S-1 says DDTL 2.0 loans are limited to a percentage of the depreciated purchase price of the GPU servers and infrastructure for the contract financed, "with such percentage based upon the credit rating of the applicable customer" [10]. The agreement depreciates cost straight-line over six years with a half-month convention [11]. Six-year straight-line leaves half of cost after three years and one-sixth after five, the term of each DDTL 2.0 loan (derived) [10, 11]. DDTL 2.0's two advance rates, one for investment-grade customers and one for the rest, are redacted [11]. CoreWeave's agreements of March 2026 and August 2026 carry the same definition but cap each draw at 90% and 70% of the servers' purchase price and installation costs, with no depreciation deducted [12, 14].
Customer credit sets the price and the mix as well. DDTL 2.0 margins ran from 5.0% to 12.0% on base rate loans and from 6.0% to 13.0% on loans priced off the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), by the customer's rating, and collateral serving non-investment-grade contracts was capped at 0.35x of the total [10]. CoreWeave's $8.5 billion facility of March 2026, rated A3 by Moody's and A (low) by Morningstar DBRS, priced its floating tranche at SOFR plus 2.25% [13]. Book lives like these are set against market evidence in GPU depreciation and useful life.
Residual value when the contract ends
Morningstar DBRS wrote in April 2026 that CoreWeave's March 2026 facility fully amortizes by its maturity date, has no exposure to re-leasing risk and has a base-case coverage ratio of 1.20x once stabilized [24]. KBRA's June 2026 research asks whether customers keep using GPUs and tensor processing units (TPUs) at an attractive price after the original contract term, beyond whether the chips still work [25]. Nscale's agreement gives the borrower 60 days after certain customer terminations to sell the servers, first offering them to its parent and then to a third party on arm's-length terms, or to reallocate or redeploy them [15]. NVIDIA's report for the quarter ended 26 July 2026 says it may, at its option, provide limited residual-value support for some projects, and its filed form of residual value guaranty covers a data-center lease in Ohio, not GPU servers [19, 20]. Who carries the residual under a lease or a purchase is worked through in lease or buy GPU servers.
When lenders took compute equipment back
The public cases found here are bitcoin mining loans settled in 2022 and early 2023, and the filings record debt relief. Stronghold sold pledged miners to its lenders, and $65.3 million of about $67.4 million in principal was extinguished [21]. Greenidge's debt of about $76 million fell by about $59 million when its lender bought subsidiaries holding mining equipment, and Greenidge agreed to host the lender's machines for five years [23]. Both are borrower disclosures, and they do not say what the lenders later realized [21, 23].
Monitoring the hardware
The OCC handbook expects regular reappraisals, more often as issues arise, and field audits that commonly include collateral inspections, often quarterly [1]. Basel requires physical inspection of equipment during revaluation, and monitoring of collateral value at least once a year [3]. The GPU agreements track inventory. DDTL 2.0 requires the servers' serial numbers within 60 days of each borrowing and collateral access agreements with data-center landlords within 120 days of each lease [11], and Nscale adds the data centers' locations [15].
Rillor's GPU financing work prepares the evidence lenders weigh on both the contracts and the hardware, including collateral and residual value research built on the Rillor Compute Index's hardware price and rent-to-value methodology, in which each price keeps its evidence class.
Read the full report
The full report adds the definitions in full, each filed facility's sizing terms, the rating agency publications by date, the mining figures and the complete source list.