Anthropic and OpenAI’s bankers are lobbying for investment-grade credit ratings after their upcoming IPOs to lower borrowing costs for AI infrastructure plans. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have held talks with credit rating agencies on behalf of the two leading AI labs, aiming to access the $11.7tn corporate bond market post-IPO. Analysts say bankers argue public listings will unlock liquidity and improve balance sheets.

Achieving investment-grade status from Fitch, Moody’s and S&P soon after going public would be remarkable for the lossmaking AI labs, unlocking benefits for infrastructure partners like Oracle and Nvidia. The rating would open access to pension funds and insurers that avoid speculative-grade debt. Space X received an immediate investment-grade rating after its June IPO, benefiting from index rule changes that drove passive investment into its stock.

Previous tech heavyweights like Meta, Netflix and Tesla waited a decade or more for top-tier ratings. Discussions are ongoing, with no final decisions made. Both companies have yet to publicly outline their IPO roadmap.

Anthropic, OpenAI, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Moody’s and S&P declined to comment; Fitch did not respond. Both labs have arranged substantial credit lines with big banks but rely mainly on institutional and venture capital to finance hundreds of billions in spending on chips and data centres. They also use partners’ investment-grade ratings for preferential borrowing terms.

Rising debt costs from AI projects have increased borrowing concerns. An investment-grade rating would broaden capital access and improve terms. Rating agencies await IPO results before deciding.

The companies remain unprofitable with little positive free cash flow and face risks from Chinese open-weight models. One analyst said they are still treated as deep in speculative grade. Their credit ratings matter to Big Tech partners who have guaranteed hundreds of billions on the assumption the labs will soon borrow independently.

Nvidia’s $105bn credit support for an OpenAI data centre in Ohio ends when OpenAI achieves a “satisfactory credit rating.” A ratings bump could help Oracle refinance debt after raising funds for a $300bn data centre build-out for OpenAI that risks its own investment-grade status following a recent downgrade.