Anthropic has offered Blackstone a 10% coupon on $9 billion of junior debt in a $60 billion chip financing known as Project North Star, the Financial Times reported on October 16, citing people familiar with the negotiations. The financing would pay for about 1.5 gigawatts of Google's custom tensor processing units, and the FT said it would be the largest chip financing arrangement to date.
The package includes about $42 billion of senior debt guaranteed by Broadcom, which works with Google on the chips, and $18 billion of junior debt. Funds managed by Blackstone are expected to take half of the junior portion, which is backed by Anthropic's five-year lease payments on the chips. Once issuance discounts and fees are included, Blackstone's total return would be above 10%.
The coupon is above what Anthropic paid in an earlier deal. In a similar arrangement called Project Big Sky four months earlier, the company raised about $4.4 billion at an interest rate of 8.5%. Borrowers with a similar credit rating typically pay about 7% in public bond markets. The rating agency KBRA placed Anthropic one notch below investment grade in June, and the new junior debt is expected to receive a similar rating. Anthropic is seeking investment-grade status, which could lower its future borrowing costs.
The remaining $9 billion of junior debt is expected to be offered to other investors in the coming months, possibly at lower yields. Once the financing is drawn down in 2027, the debt could become tradable in the 144A market for institutional bonds.
Blackstone declined to comment, and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to accounts of the report. Reuters, which carried the FT story, said it could not immediately verify the report.
