AI financing costs climb: Anthropic plans to offer Blackstone a yield above 10%

Anthropic is advancing its largest-ever chip financing at a cost far above market benchmarks, reflecting the increasingly steep capital price behind the AI infrastructure arms race.

According to a Financial Times report on the 17th, Anthropic is offering Blackstone a yield of more than 10% in exchange for its participation in this debt financing, codenamed "Project North Star," with a total size of up to $60 billion. People familiar with the matter said Blackstone's funds will subscribe to $9 billion of it, roughly half of the $18 billion subordinated loan, and receive a 10% coupon, with the actual total return even higher after accounting for the new-issue discount and other fees.

The financing is expected to set a record in chip-financing history and will become an important barometer of investor appetite for AI debt. Notably, just four months ago, Anthropic completed roughly $4.4 billion in financing at an 8.5% rate under the codename "Project Big Sky." The rapid rise in borrowing costs underscores investors' growing wariness toward the concentrated financing demands of AI companies.

The $60 billion financing: record size, costs surging in tandem

"Project North Star" is intended to fund Anthropic's purchase of about 1.5 gigawatts of custom semiconductors developed by Google — namely tensor processing units (TPUs).

The overall debt structure is divided into two layers: about $42 billion is senior debt, guaranteed by Broadcom, which is involved in the chip development; the remaining $18 billion is subordinated loans, of which Blackstone is subscribing to $9 billion, with the rest to be sold to a broader range of investors in the coming months, possibly at rates lower than the terms Blackstone received. Once the funds are fully drawn down in 2027, this portion of the debt is expected to enter circulation in the institutional 144A bond market.

Blackstone declined to comment, and Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A premium of more than 300 basis points highlights the demand for risk premiums

According to the ICE BofA BB-rated U.S. high-yield bond index, borrowers with credit profiles similar to Anthropic's typically pay a yield of about 7% in the public bond market. The 10% coupon Anthropic is offering Blackstone this time is more than 300 basis points above that benchmark, and the actual yield gap is even larger once discounts and fees are factored in.

This premium reflects pressure on two fronts: first, investors are becoming more cautious about the massive financing needs that tech companies are releasing in a concentrated manner over a short period, demanding higher risk compensation; second, large financing deals typically need to offer additional premiums to anchor investors and early commitment parties to ensure the transaction lands smoothly.

The rapid rise in borrowing costs has also made Anthropic's path to an investment-grade rating more complicated. Rating agency KBRA rated Anthropic one notch below investment grade in June this year, and this subordinated debt is expected to receive a similar rating.

Strategic positioning before the IPO: high-cost financing in exchange for long-term room to lower costs

Despite the high financing costs, Anthropic is still choosing to bear the pressure proactively, and there is a clear strategic logic behind this. According to media reports citing people familiar with the matter, Blackstone has told its investment partners that this deal is a rare opportunity to invest in Anthropic-linked debt at high yield levels — once Anthropic completes its listing, it is expected to obtain an investment-grade rating, at which point its financing costs will fall sharply.

This narrative is essentially a form of time arbitrage: Anthropic is paying higher rates before its listing in exchange for the necessary computing reserves, and betting that a post-listing credit-rating upgrade will create room for refinancing, thereby diluting long-term capital costs. For early investors such as Blackstone, it means locking in above-market returns during the risk window.

This financing is both a funding guarantee for Anthropic's expansion and a key stress test of whether the AI industry's debt-financing market can continue to absorb large-scale deals.

Join the official Coincamps community:

X: https://x.com/coincamps

Telegram: https://t.me/coin_camps