Blackstone Reverses Stance, Says Anthropic May Struggle to Obtain Investment-Grade Credit Rating After IPO

On the eve of the largest IPO in history, Blackstone suddenly changed its tune, saying Anthropic may not obtain an investment-grade credit rating. IT Home Download the client for exclusive early access. October 31, 2026, 21:11:15 From Shandong. Updated November 1, 2026, 07:26:56

IT Home, October 31 news: According to a report by the UK's Financial Times on the 30th, Blackstone Group told investors that Anthropic may temporarily be unable to obtain an investment-grade credit rating after going public. This expectation represents a reversal from Blackstone's previous statements and also adds difficulty for Anthropic in raising funds for its massive spending.

According to people familiar with the matter, in Anthropic's latest $63 billion (IT Home note: currently about RMB 420.183 billion) chip financing transaction, Blackstone Group informed investors that major credit rating agencies are more likely to give Anthropic a higher-tier speculative-grade rating after it goes public, rather than an investment-grade rating.

If Anthropic successfully goes public next month, it is expected to set the record for the largest IPO in history. The prospectus discloses that the company's "bold but rational" plan is to invest more than $800 billion (currently about RMB 5.34 trillion) in computing infrastructure from now until 2045.

Whether it can obtain an investment-grade rating matters to whether Anthropic can borrow at lower interest rates in the future to fund AI infrastructure construction. The company currently holds more than $112 billion (currently about RMB 746.991 billion) in cash and cash equivalents, and investors expect the IPO may also bring it about $100 billion (currently about RMB 666.957 billion) in financing.

For several months previously, Blackstone had been telling investment partners that it expected Anthropic to obtain an investment-grade rating before the end of the year. However, people familiar with the matter said that, based on guidance from major credit rating agencies, Blackstone recently adjusted its expectations and believes Anthropic is more likely to receive a rating in the BB range or higher.

Such a rating would narrow the sources of financing available to Anthropic. Many insurance companies and pension funds are subject to investment regulations and cannot invest on a large scale in debt issuers whose credit ratings are at speculative grade. Anthropic may therefore still have to rely on suppliers with higher credit ratings to support its debt financing.

Earlier this week, Wall Street banks completed the "Project Polaris" financing transaction to fund Anthropic's leasing of Google chips, involving chips with a total power of 1.5 gigawatts. Of this, more than $42 billion (currently about RMB 280.122 billion) in senior loans is guaranteed by Broadcom.

Broadcom participates in the joint development of these chips and itself has an investment-grade credit rating; another $18 billion (currently about RMB 120.052 billion) in subordinated debt is secured by the rent paid by Anthropic.

Institutional investors prefer senior debt because, if the borrower defaults, senior debt is repaid before subordinated loans. Broadcom's relatively high A-tier credit rating is an important condition for Anthropic to obtain this financing.

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