FULL STORY
Anthropic's $60B Chip Financing: Costs Climbing
Anthropic is pushing a ~$60B chip financing push, paying Blackstone over 10% yields as private credit costs climb from 8.5% four months earlier.
2026-10-17 ~ 2026-10-21 · 2 episodes · 9 posts
Episode 1 · Anthropic's $60B Project North Star chip financing pays Blackstone over 10% yield (2026-10-17, 7 posts)
Per Financial Times, Anthropic is pursuing a $60B chip financing dubbed Project North Star, paying a Blackstone-managed fund over 10% yield (FT cites a 10% coupon) to fund leases of Google TPUs. As @tengyanAI notes, similarly rated borrowers pay about 7% in public bond markets, underscoring the financing premium. The deal remains media-reported pending official confirmation.
Confirmed
- The $60B package comprises $18B junior debt and $42B senior debt, tied to 1.5GW of compute capacity (per @TansuYegen, @shashib)
- Blackstone-managed funds subscribe $9B of the junior tranche, secured by 5-year chip leases, yielding 10%+
- Broadcom arranged the deal, backstops the $42B senior portion, and agreed to support via TPU leasing
- Anthropic received a KBRA rating of BB+ before its $35B chip financing—just below investment grade—mocked by @basedjensen as "America's largest private company with junk-grade credit"
- Per @AIFlowML citing FT, the high borrowing cost complicates Anthropic's goal of reaching investment-grade ratings
Unconfirmed
- @basedjensen and @TansuYegen both report Wall Street banks are assembling the $60B-scale package to buy Google and Broadcom chips; final structure and size remain unconfirmed
Why it matters
Top AI labs are turning to private credit and structured tranches to fund massive compute purchases, at a steep premium to public-market costs—revealing both the capital intensity of the AI compute race and the tension between even leading labs' credit profiles and their financing needs.
- Anthropic lands BB+ rating as Wall Street assembles $60B AI chip financing — basedjensen · 2026-10-17
- Anthropic reportedly offers Blackstone 10%+ returns to fund AI chip deal — Polymarket · 2026-10-17
- FT: Anthropic offers Blackstone double-digit yield in chip financing, complicating its investment-grade goal — AIFlow_ML · 2026-10-17
- Anthropic pays Blackstone 10% coupon to finance Google chips, above the ~7% peers pay — tengyanAI · 2026-10-18
- Anthropic pays Blackstone 10%+ yield to anchor $9B slice of $60B chip financing — 2C_ornot2C · 2026-10-18
- Anthropic reportedly offers 10%+ yield on $9B chip-backed debt in $60B package — TansuYegen · 2026-10-18
- Anthropic's $60B Project North Star: Blackstone anchor at 10%+ yield on $9B junior debt — shashib · 2026-10-18
Episode 2 · Anthropic's Chip Debt Rate Climbs Above 10% in Four Months (2026-10-21, 2 posts)
Anthropic's chip debt from Blackstone now carries an interest rate above 10%, up from 8.5% four months ago, Axios reports, fueling views that an IPO is the company's only real option.
- Anthropic's chip debt now tops 10% vs 8.5% four months ago, pressuring a swift IPO — rohanpaul_ai · 2026-10-21
- Anthropic's chip debt now costs over 10% from Blackstone, up from 8.5% four months ago — rohanpaul_ai · 2026-10-21