“Anthropic Offers Yields of More Than 10% on 12 Trillion Won Subordinated Bond Issue”

[Financial News] Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) developer, has offered Blackstone Inc. a yield of more than 10% on subordinated bonds it is issuing to raise funds to buy Google's AI chip, the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), the Financial Times (FT) reported on the 17th (local time).
The offer comes as Anthropic negotiates $60 billion (about 80.1 trillion won) in financing to buy and use TPU chips with a capacity of about 1.5 gigawatts (GW).
The $60 billion is divided into about $42 billion in senior bonds guaranteed by Broadcom, a co-developer of the TPU, and $18 billion in subordinated bonds. Sources said Anthropic is negotiating a plan for Blackstone Inc. to invest half of the $18 billion subordinated tranche, and has offered a yield of at least 10% on those bonds.
According to the ICE BofA BB US High Yield Index, borrowers with similar credit ratings typically pay yields of around 7% in the public bond market.
The remaining $9 billion is planned to be sold to investors over the coming months, and its yield could be lower, sources said.
Four months ago, Anthropic issued about $4.4 billion in bonds at a yield of 8.5% in a similar deal known as “Project Big Sky.”
The FT reported that the rising borrowing costs show investors financing the expansion of AI infrastructure are demanding higher risk premiums.
Blackstone Inc. reportedly told its investment partners that the deal would be a rare opportunity to earn high yields.
That is because Anthropic is expected to significantly lower its borrowing costs if it goes public and receives an investment-grade rating.
[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Affairs Correspondent Reporter