Anthropic's Google Chip Procurement Could Lead To Another $36B Debt Financing Round

Blackstone Inc. has initiated preliminary talks with investors regarding a second major debt financing package to fund Anthropic PBC’s use of Alphabet Inc.’s Google chips.

• The private credit facility is at least $36 billion.
• The potential package follows a record $35-billion credit deal put together just two months ago by Apollo Global Management Inc. and Blackstone.
• To de-risk these huge credit packages, tech giants like Google and Broadcom are providing financial guarantees and equity backing in circular deals that keep Silicon Valley's compute race moving forward.

Investment giant Blackstone Inc. (BX) has held early talks with institutional investors to explore interest in a second mega private debt package totaling at least $36 billion to finance AI startup Anthropic PBC’s procurement of Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Google processing chips.

If completed at or near that size, the deal would surpass a record-breaking $35-billion credit transaction arranged around two months ago by Blackstone and Apollo Global Management Inc., marking one of the largest private credit arrangements in history, according to a Bloomberg report.

Expanding AI Infrastructure Ahead Of Anthropic’s Public Debut

Blackstone's proposal underlines the growing role of private credit in funding high-stakes technology hardware as companies compete for market dominance. Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that details including the exact deal size, tranche structure, and whether Blackstone will serve as the lead underwriter remain under negotiation and could change. 

The massive capital request comes at a pivotal moment for Anthropic, the San Francisco-based creator of the Claude AI model. The startup recently filed confidentially for a U.S. initial public offering as it races rival OpenAI toward a public market debut. To maintain its competitive standing, Anthropic contracted to lease custom Google AI chips across five data centers as part of the earlier $35-billion debt transaction. Securing this second multi-billion-dollar financing tier allows Anthropic to scale its computational capacity aggressively without diluting equity prior to its IPO.

Google, Apollo & Broadcom: Anthropic’s Early Investors 

The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure relies on increasingly complex financial partnerships between hardware vendors, cloud giants, and asset managers. Google, an early venture investor in Anthropic, has steadily increased its support by backstopping the debt arrangements that fund the startup’s compute footprint. 

To facilitate these large-scale compute deals, Broadcom Inc. (AVGO), Apollo Global Management (PAO), and Blackstone formed a specialized partnership earlier this year known as the AI XPV Platform. In the previous $35-billion debt deal arranged with help from Morgan Stanley, Broadcom backstopped payments on the largest senior portions of the debt to mitigate risk for primary lenders. 

Representatives for Google, Apollo, and Broadcom declined or did not respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment. 

Anthropic Strikes $10B Deal With NVDA-Backed Volta Infra 

Anthropic PBC reportedly struck a $10-billion deal for computing capacity from a months-old infrastructure startup, marking the Claude maker’s latest effort to keep pace with demand for its products.

The AI developer has signed a contract to use a data center managed by Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)-backed cloud startup Volta Infra Holdings Ltd., according to a Bloomberg report that cited people familiar with the matter.

Anthropic: Retail View 

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits was ‘extremely bullish’ with ‘extremely high’ message volumes.