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Anthropic is offering Blackstone a hefty return of more than 10% to fund its latest chip deal, underscoring the startup’s willingness to incur high borrowing costs to fund expensive AI infrastructure.
The $60 billion debt plan, dubbed “Project North Star,” would help finance Anthropic’s purchase of about 1.5 gigawatts of custom semiconductors developed by Google, known as tensor processing units.
It is expected to be the largest chip financing to date and a crucial test of investors’ appetite for AI-related debt, at a time when lenders are increasingly nervous about tech companies’ heavy capital spending and borrowing.
Blackstone funds would invest $9 billion in Anthropic’s five-year lease-backed chip debt, which would represent about half of the $18 billion in junior loans, according to people familiar with the matter.
The private equity giant was offered a 10 percent coupon and an even higher total return after taking into account new issue discounts and other fees, the sources said. A borrower with a similar credit profile typically pays a yield of around 7% in the public bond market, according to the ICE BofA BB US High Yield Index. The rest of the $9 billion would be sold to a broader group of investors in the coming months, potentially at a lower return, the sources added.
Blackstone declined to comment. Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Just four months ago, Anthropic sold about $4.4 billion of debt in a similar deal known as “Project Big Sky” at an interest rate of 8.5 percent, the FT reported at the time.
Rising borrowing costs underscore investors’ demand for higher risk premiums to fund AI development, as they grapple with the huge financing needs of tech companies over a short period of time. Tech groups also pay to secure capital in high-profile financings to attract key investors and early commitments.
It also highlights the challenges facing the five-year-old AI Lab as it aims to achieve an investment-grade rating. Blackstone told its investment partners that the latest chip deal would provide a rare opportunity to earn a high return on Anthropic-related debt as it is expected to receive an investment-grade rating and significantly reduce its borrowing costs once it goes public, the sources added.
Anthropic was assigned a rating one notch below investment grade by KBRA in June, and the latest junior debt is expected to receive something similar.
The new debt package also includes about $42 billion in senior debt guaranteed by Broadcom, which is helping develop the chips with Google. When the capital has been drawn down in 2027, the debt could become tradable on the 144A institutional bond market.
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