- Blackstone told investment partners it expects Anthropic to receive a BB credit rating or higher after consulting leading rating agencies, according to the Financial Times.
- The $63 billion North Star project will finance Anthropic’s lease of 1.5 GW of Google semiconductor capacity.
- Anthropic’s IPO prospectus outlines plans to spend more than $800 billion on computing infrastructure by 2045.
Blackstone warned investors during October 2026 financing discussions that Anthropic may not receive an investment-grade credit rating immediately after its IPO. Rating agencies are likely to give the Claude developer a speculative-grade rating, potentially raising its borrowing costs and limiting access to capital for large infrastructure projects, the Financial Times reported.
Blackstone revises its rating expectations
Blackstone had told investment partners in recent months that it expected Anthropic to obtain an investment-grade credit rating by the end of 2026, according to the report. After consulting leading rating agencies, however, the investment firm began targeting a BB rating or higher.
A rating below investment grade would narrow Anthropic’s pool of potential lenders. Insurers and pension funds, in particular, may face restrictions on investing large sums in debt issued by borrowers with speculative-grade ratings. Anthropic would therefore likely have to continue relying on highly rated partners to secure financing.
“It’s all about access to credit, it really matters […] if [Anthropic] isn’t investment grade, the cost of credit goes higher, that’s not good for anyone,” said a U.S.-based portfolio manager specializing in the technology sector.
Anthropic has more than $112 billion in cash and cash equivalents, according to the Financial Times. Investors expect the company to raise roughly another $100 billion through its IPO.
North Star financing and infrastructure spending
The potential rating is particularly important because of Anthropic’s investment plans. Its IPO prospectus outlines spending of more than $800 billion on computing infrastructure by 2045. A September report said the company planned to allocate $518 billion to cloud services, computing capacity and infrastructure in the coming years.
Banks closed financing this week for North Star, a $63 billion project under which Anthropic is raising funds to lease 1.5 GW of Google’s semiconductor capacity. The structure includes more than $42 billion in senior loans guaranteed by Broadcom, a chip designer with a high investment-grade rating, and $18 billion in junior debt secured by Anthropic’s lease payments.
Senior loans take priority over junior debt in a default and are typically more attractive to institutional investors. Broadcom’s credit rating played a central role in securing the financing. Preliminary Financial Times data showed that Blackstone funds invested $9 billion in the junior debt at a yield above 10%.
Kroll Bond Rating Agency assigned the North Star junior debt a BB+ rating with a positive outlook, while Morningstar DBRS rated it BB. Four months earlier, KBRA gave the similar Big Sky project the same rating but assigned a stable outlook.
Fitch, Moody’s and S&P have not officially assigned credit ratings to Anthropic. Representatives of Anthropic and rival OpenAI also lobbied for investment-grade ratings after their IPOs, according to the Financial Times.
Anthropic’s IPO filing
Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO in June 2026. On October 26, it reported submitting an S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company plans to list its Class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker ANT. Anthropic has not yet determined the number of shares, price range or listing date.
Source: Incrypted
