Anthropic's $60 Billion Chip Financing Comes With a Double-Digit Price Tag
Anthropic is willing to pay a steep premium to lock in the computing power it needs for the next phase of the AI race, and the terms of its latest financing package show just how expensive that ambition has become.
The AI developer is offering Blackstone a yield above 10% to anchor a $9 billion slice of junior debt tied to what is expected to be the largest chip financing arrangement on record, people familiar with the matter said. The broader package, code-named Project North Star, totals roughly $60 billion and will fund the acquisition of about 1.5 gigawatts of Google's custom tensor processing units, or TPUs.
Blackstone-managed funds would take half of an $18 billion junior tranche backed by Anthropic's five-year lease payments on the chips. The firm was offered a 10% coupon, and issuance discounts and fees would push its total return even higher. The remaining $9 billion of junior debt is expected to be sold to other investors in the coming months, potentially at lower yields.
Blackstone declined to comment, and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Widening Risk Premium
The pricing stands out because borrowers with a similar credit profile typically pay around 7% in public bond markets, according to the ICE BofA BB US High Yield Index. The 10% coupon Anthropic is dangling represents a premium of more than 300 basis points over that benchmark, and the gap widens further once discounts and fees are included.
That spread reflects two converging pressures. First, investors are growing more cautious about the sheer volume of financing that technology companies are bringing to market in a short window, demanding greater compensation for the risk. Second, large transactions of this scale often require extra incentives to secure anchor investors and early commitments that can help the deal clear.
The rising cost of capital is also complicating Anthropic's path toward an investment-grade rating. KBRA, a credit rating agency, assigned the company a rating one notch below investment grade in June. The new junior debt is expected to receive a similar assessment.
Costs Climb Quickly
Just four months ago, Anthropic completed a similar deal called Project Big Sky at an 8.5% interest rate, raising roughly $4.4 billion. The jump to a double-digit yield on Project North Star underscores how rapidly borrowing costs have escalated as AI developers race to secure computing infrastructure.
The full debt structure is split into two layers. Approximately $42 billion consists of senior debt guaranteed by Broadcom, which collaborates with Google to develop the TPUs Anthropic is leasing. The junior tranche totals $18 billion, with Blackstone anchoring half of it.
Once the financing is drawn down in 2027, the debt is expected to become tradable in the institutional 144A bond market, giving early investors a potential exit path.
A Pre-IPO Wager
Despite the high cost, Anthropic's decision to push forward carries a clear strategic logic. The company is betting that an eventual initial public offering will bring an investment-grade rating, which would dramatically reduce its future borrowing costs. In that scenario, today's expensive debt becomes a bridge to cheaper capital down the road.
For Blackstone and other early investors, the trade offers a rare opportunity to lock in above-market yields during a window of elevated risk. The firm has reportedly told its investment partners that the transaction represents an unusual chance to invest in Anthropic-linked debt at high yield levels before a potential upgrade narrows the spread.
Anthropic's financing spree has been building for months. In June, Apollo led a $35 billion package with Blackstone to fund more than 1 gigawatt of compute capacity at Fluidstack-based sites. The company also launched a Broadcom platform designed to support more than 20 gigawatts by 2028.
In early October, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley began syndicating the $42 billion senior slice of the new package, according to people familiar with the matter.
Anthropic's IPO filing shows the company has committed $125.2 billion under a five-year lease for TPU capacity, a staggering figure that underscores the scale of its infrastructure ambitions. The company plans to go public later this year.
The financing is not just a funding mechanism for Anthropic's expansion. It is also a critical stress test for the broader AI debt market, which has absorbed a rapid succession of large transactions. Rothschild & Co managing partner Robert Leitao has warned of "quite a concentrated bet" on two companies earning enough to support all this financing, referring to the heavy reliance on a small number of AI developers to generate returns on massive infrastructure investments.
As Project North Star moves toward completion, the terms it secures will serve as a benchmark for how much investors are willing to lend to AI companies at this stage of the cycle, and at what price.