Michael Saylor says Strategy used artificial intelligence to design a new class of preferred stocks that enabled the company to raise roughly $15 billion for its Bitcoin strategy. Saylor, Strategy’s executive chairman, disclosed the AI-assisted security architecture on The Diary of a CEO podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett on August 6.
“I used AI to make $15 billion last year,” Saylor said during the episode.
Strategy had previously relied on common-stock issuance and convertible bonds to finance Bitcoin purchases. Both channels reached scaling limits, forcing the company to explore alternative financing methods in early 2025. Saylor consulted ChatGPT, the AI system created by OpenAI, to design a new instrument.
“We needed to invent a new type of security, a new type of credit instrument that we could use to borrow money to buy more Bitcoin,” Saylor explained.
The Variable-Rate Structure
The resulting instrument is STRC, a variable-rate preferred stock that combines characteristics of debt and equity. The structure adjusts dividend rates based on market conditions to keep the price stable near its $100 stated value. Strategy raised $10.5 billion through STRC, consisting of a $2.5 billion initial offering followed by an $8 billion subsequent issuance. An additional $4 billion came through other related preferred securities, bringing the total to $15 billion.
Saylor described the reaction when he posed the concept to conventional financial advisers. “Their answer, by the way, is no one’s ever done it before, and people don’t do that,” he said. When he asked ChatGPT the same question, the response differed markedly. “Well, can we do it? They’re like, ‘Of course you can do it.'”
Capital Deployment
Strategy is the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 840,000 BTC in its portfolio. The company deployed the $15 billion raised through the preferred securities to expand these holdings.
“So we basically sold $15 billion of credit,” Saylor summarized on the podcast.
The disclosure highlights how large corporations are beginning to integrate generative AI into complex financial structuring. Strategy had previously become one of the world’s largest issuers of convertible bonds before pivoting to the preferred-stock approach.
