Broadcom-Anthropic Chip Financing: Banks Plan Up to $21B in Bonds
Banks plan to sell as much as about $21 billion of high-grade bonds from early 2027 to refinance part of the $42 billion loan in Broadcom's $63 billion Anthropic chip package, Bloomberg reports.
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Reported amounts from Bloomberg: the bond sale could come as soon as early 2027, and its size is not set.
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Banks plan to sell as much as about $21 billion of high-grade bonds as soon as early 2027 as part of the $63 billion financing Broadcom has assembled for chips that AI developer Anthropic will use, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 27, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Banks plan to sell up to about $21 billion of bonds, as soon as early 2027, Bloomberg reports; final size depends on markets.
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According to Bloomberg, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley helped arrange the package, and other banks are expected to submit commitments in the coming days. The banks are lending about $42 billion, and as much as half of that is expected to be refinanced in the US high-grade corporate bond market in the first quarter of 2027. Blackstone is anchoring the rest with $9 billion, Bloomberg previously reported. Broadcom, Blackstone and the three banks declined to comment.
How the lease structure works
Bloomberg describes the deal as vendor financing by Broadcom. A special purpose company borrows the money to pay for the technology and leases it to Anthropic, and Anthropic's lease payments repay the debt. The $42 billion portion is senior secured, so lenders have first claim on the special purpose company's assets, and Broadcom provides residual value support, a financial backstop, for that portion. One person told Bloomberg that the banks have underwritten the senior secured tranche.
The bonds that are eventually sold will probably mature in around five years, with principal repaid over the life of the notes. The final size and timing, that person said, will depend on market conditions.
Why it matters for AI chip supply
The financing is how the accelerators get paid for. As Voltgrid reported, the package covers Broadcom XPU accelerators and networking gear for Anthropic, with deliveries expected from calendar 2027, and the joint statement gave no chip count, generation, wattage, lease term or site. A bond sale in the first quarter of 2027 would put the refinancing close to the first deliveries. Without a stated wattage or site, the power and cooling load of the hardware cannot be sized from public figures.
Bloomberg says the deal is closely watched because investors are growing warier of AI debt. Companies have borrowed more than $455 billion across markets globally for AI-related spending this year, it reported. This is Broadcom's second large chip financing this year, after a $35 billion transaction involving Apollo Global Management and Blackstone.
What is not confirmed yet
The bond size, timing and pricing are not set. Bloomberg's sources are unnamed, none of the companies commented, and its report does not say who provides the part of the $63 billion beyond the bank loans and Blackstone's $9 billion. Other banks have yet to commit.
