Blackstone to Lead $36 Billion Financing Deal, Expanding the Capital Loop Between Anthropic and Alphabet

Anthropic is building an unprecedented massive financing structure to support its rapidly expanding computing power needs.

On August 4, Bloomberg reported, citing insiders, that Blackstone has begun initial contacts with investors, planning to lead a debt financing arrangement of at least $36 billion, specifically earmarked for Anthropic to pay for renting AI chips from Alphabet.

If this financing ultimately closes, its scale will surpass the $35 billion debt package arranged jointly by Apollo Global Management and Blackstone about two months ago, which was already one of the largest private credit transactions in history.

The emergence of this huge new financing reflects the bottomless demand for capital in AI infrastructure construction, as well as the increasingly complex capital relationships among tech giants, financial institutions, and AI startups.

Alphabet is both an early investor in Anthropic and, by providing endorsement for its chip leasing transactions, has formed a capital circulation structure—the billions of dollars invested by Alphabet eventually flow back to Alphabet itself in the form of leasing fees.

Continuous Expansion of the Closed-Loop Financing System

This round of financing is an extension of the "circular transaction" system between Anthropic and Alphabet.

Alphabet is one of Anthropic's early investors, having subscribed to its equity multiple times, and is increasingly deeply involved in endorsing the financing that supports the startup's data center operations.

Ed Elson, a well-known US financial podcast host and analyst, stated bluntly on social media:

Alphabet has invested billions in Anthropic, and Anthropic uses this money to rent chips from Alphabet—but Alphabet's billions weren't enough, so Anthropic borrowed billions more from Blackstone.

In the previous $35 billion debt package, Anthropic planned to use the financing to rent powerful custom chips from Alphabet across five data centers, with Alphabet providing guarantee endorsement for the largest senior portion of that debt.

Another core participant in this financing structure is Broadcom. Earlier this year, Broadcom, Apollo, and Blackstone jointly established a cooperation platform called the "AI XPV Platform," specifically designed to provide computing infrastructure financing for leading AI companies, including Anthropic. The previously completed $35 billion debt transaction was the first deal closed by this platform.

As noted by Wallstreetcn, Broadcom provided guarantees for the repayment of the largest senior portion in that transaction, while Morgan Stanley served as advisor and helped arrange the deal.

Anthropic Expands Computing Power on Multiple Fronts, Putting Pressure on the AI Credit Market

Meanwhile, Anthropic's expansion of computing power is not limited to the Alphabet channel.

According to industry analysis firm SemiAnalysis, Anthropic has signed a $10 billion computing power agreement with chip computing company Bitdeer and Volta Infra, a neocloud startup founded by former Brookfield executives.

SemiAnalysis pointed out that the direct driver for this additional computing power is the rapid growth in demand for the Claude Code product. The firm stated on social media:

Demand for Claude Code is rising sharply.

These financing moves occurred after Anthropic secretly filed for an IPO in the United States.

The developer of the Claude series of models is seeking to go public before its competitor OpenAI. The arrangement of this new round of massive debt financing may, to some extent, reflect its intention to strengthen its balance sheet and computing power reserves on the eve of its listing.

From a broader perspective, the siphoning effect of AI infrastructure construction on the capital market is continuing to intensify.

Tech companies are knocking on every corner of the credit market to cope with the unprecedented capital demands of AI, forcing Wall Street to design various new debt structures.

At the same time, some companies have recently had to pay high interest rates when issuing new debt, reflecting that market doubts about the return prospects of AI investments have not yet dissipated.