Google’s backstops underpin $35 billion chip deal for Anthropic - Bloomberg News

Apollo Global Management Inc. and Blackstone Inc. have finalized a $35 billion financing package for Anthropic PBC to expand its AI infrastructure, marking one of the largest private credit transactions in history. The capital will fund the leasing of Google’s custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), which are expected to be deployed starting in 2027. The deal highlights the growing demand for AI infrastructure and the innovative debt structures engineered by Wall Street to meet these capital needs.

Under the financing structure, Broadcom Inc. provides backstopping for the senior portions of the debt, reducing borrowing costs by aligning with its strong credit profile. The $35 billion facility is divided into three tranches: $6 billion in A1 notes, $24 billion in A2 notes, and $4.5 billion in B notes. The A1 and A2 tranches are backed by Broadcom, while the B tranche carries a higher coupon of 8.5% without such support.

A key feature of the deal is a residual value support agreement, under which Broadcom guarantees that any shortfall in repayment—should Anthropic fail to make lease payments—will be covered by Broadcom. This structure mirrors a similar arrangement used in Meta’s Hyperion data center financing.

The financing follows Anthropic’s $65 billion Series H funding round, which valued the company at $965 billion. The firm is also preparing for a confidential U.S. IPO filing, aiming to enter the public market ahead of rival OpenAI. The deal underscores the accelerating investment in AI infrastructure and the role of institutional investors in scaling compute capacity for frontier AI development.