Blackstone: Anthropic may struggle to secure an investment-grade rating immediately after going public, and its financing sources may be constrained.

Beating AI News Flash: According to the Financial Times citing people familiar with the matter, Blackstone has told investors in Anthropic's latest $63 billion chip financing deal that Anthropic may not obtain an investment-grade credit rating immediately after its IPO and is expected to receive a relatively high non-investment-grade (junk) rating. This differs from Blackstone's previous guidance that Anthropic would obtain an investment-grade rating by the end of the year.

This may limit Anthropic's funding sources, as many insurance and pension funds cannot make large investments in junk-rated borrowers. Anthropic may need to continue relying on high-credit-rating suppliers to support financing. Its prospectus shows that the company plans to invest more than $800 billion before 2045 to build computing infrastructure.

Obtaining an investment-grade credit rating is crucial to achieving these goals, which would allow Anthropic to borrow at lower interest rates to fund its AI infrastructure projects. The group has more than $112 billion in cash and equivalents, and investors expect it may raise about another $100 billion in the IPO.

In the "Project North Star" financing, more than $42 billion of senior loans are guaranteed by Broadcom. $18 billion of subordinated debt has received a BB+ rating with a positive outlook from KBRA and a BB rating from Morningstar DBRS. Blackstone funds invested $9 billion of that, with a yield exceeding 10%. The three major rating agencies Fitch, Moody's and S&P have not yet officially assigned a credit rating to Anthropic.