Blackstone takes $9 billion of the junior debt in a $60 billion Anthropic chip package

Split by seniority, the package is 70% senior-secured paper and 30% junior debt ^[14]. Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are among the banks marketing the $42 billion Class A tranche, according to Crypto Briefing ^[3]. Syndication letters are about to go out, according to people with knowledge of the deal cited in a report carried by Yahoo Finance Singapore ^[2]. Blackstone's $9 billion is half of the $18 billion Class B slice and 15% of the whole ^[15]. That report says the money comes from various Blackstone funds ^[4]. Crypto Briefing calls it Blackstone's own money ^[17].

The more interesting number, or rather the more interesting coincidence, is in Anthropic's IPO prospectus, filed around October 1. According to Crypto Briefing, the prospectus says Broadcom may commit up to $42 billion in lending, potentially convertible into Anthropic equity ^[18]. That facility would support one-third of a $125.2 billion lease commitment for TPUs ^[19]. A third of $125.2 billion is $41.7 billion ^[21]. That is also, to the billion, the size of the Class A tranche ^[2]. The reports do not say whether Broadcom's lending and the bank-marketed senior tranche are the same money, and neither gives pricing. If they are the same, the seller of the chips is lending 70% of the money used to buy them ^[14]. If they are separate, the debt behind this compute runs past $60 billion ^[1]. A Broadcom representative declined to comment ^[12].

The deal is being watched for reassurance that investors still want to fund AI's buildout despite a public backlash against data-centre construction, according to the Yahoo Finance Singapore report ^[6]. I think that frames the wrong risk. This package buys chips. A special-purpose vehicle owns them and leases them to Anthropic, which is not paying for the hardware outright ^[5]. Crypto Briefing notes that the chips lose value as newer generations arrive, and that a large share of the financing depends on one tenant meeting its obligations ^[7][8]. The counter-case is that the same Broadcom-Apollo-Blackstone partnership closed a $35 billion tranche in June, so lenders have already priced this tenant once ^[9].

Blackstone sits on several sides of this. Its investment in Anthropic has helped boost the performance of its private equity fund for wealthy clients ^[10]. It is a partner in AI XPV ^[9], and in August Nvidia named it one of six finance firms in a partnership to mobilise more than $500 billion for AI, including financing for customers' chip purchases ^[11]. In the junior tranche, Blackstone would feel stress before the senior lenders ^[7]. Syndicating half the slice holds that first-loss position to $9 billion ^[15].

If the banks fill the $42 billion and Blackstone sells the other $9 billion, lenders are still treating Anthropic's rent as good credit ^[2][15]. Should Blackstone end up holding more than $9 billion, or the junior tranche shrink, that would be the first hard evidence of a limit ^[15]. A third path runs through Broadcom, whose convertible lending, if finalised, would put more of the risk on the chip seller and could turn some of it into Anthropic equity ^[18]. I expect the first outcome, given the June close and the $95 billion now sought across the two rounds ^[16]. The view is wrong if the junior slice is still for sale after the deal is announced, or if the senior tranche clears only with Broadcom's money in it ^[1].