Anthropic is offering Blackstone a yield exceeding 10 percent to finance its latest chip deal, highlighting the start-up’s willingness to accept steep borrowing costs for expensive AI infrastructure. The $60bn debt package, named 'Project North Star,' will fund procurement of approximately 1.5 gigawatts of custom Google tensor processing units. Expected to be the largest chip financing to date, it tests investor appetite amid growing lender concerns over tech sector capital spending.
Blackstone funds would invest $9bn in debt backed by Anthropic’s five-year lease payments, representing about half of the $18bn junior loans. The private capital firm was offered a 10 percent coupon and an even higher total return after accounting for discounts and fees. By comparison, similar credit profiles typically yield around 7 percent in public markets.
The remaining $9bn will be sold to other investors, potentially at a lower yield. This follows a $4.4bn debt sale four months ago at 8.5 percent interest. The rising costs reflect increased risk premiums for AI infrastructure build-out.
The package also includes $42bn of senior debt guaranteed by Broadcom, which co-develops the chips with Google. Once drawn down in 2027, the debt may become tradeable in the 144A bond market.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing