Key insights
- AI startup Anthropic is reportedly seeking $36 billion in debt financing from Apollo and Blackstone to acquire custom chips from Google. This significant funding round, coupled with Anthropic's recent $65 billion valuation, highlights massive investment in AI infrastructure. While not directly impacting equity markets immediately, it signals strong growth expectations and capital deployment in the AI sector, potentially benefiting chip manufacturers like Broadcom and cloud providers like Google, and could influence future tech IPOs.
May 28 (Reuters) - Apollo Global Management and Blackstone are working to bring in additional investors for about $36 billion debt financing tied to AI startup Anthropic PBC’s efforts to expand its AI infrastructure, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The debt would be used to buy custom chips from Google. Anthropic would then lease these chips, known as tensor processing units, or TPUs, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Broadcom, which helps Google develop the chips, is backstopping payments on the largest portions of the transaction, the report added.
Anthropic said on Thursday it had raised $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation, surpassing rival OpenAI, as the AI startup looks to expand computing capacity to meet growing demand for its Claude chatbot.
The Bloomberg report said that Apollo and Blackstone plan to sell down part of the debt while retaining significant portions themselves.
Investors are being asked to submit orders this week, with the deal expected to close next week, the report said, adding that discussions are ongoing and the terms could still change.
Anthropic and OpenAI are eyeing potential IPOs as early as this year.
Apollo, Blackstone, Anthropic, Google and Broadcom did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
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