An IPO and a rosy future? ... Could the “speculative-grade” hurdle trip up Anthropic?

[Financial News] A report says a global private equity firm told investors that Anthropic would have difficulty obtaining an investment-grade credit rating even after its initial public offering (IPO).
According to the UK’s Financial Times (FT) on the 31st of last month (local time), during recent debt financing for a $63 billion (about 84 trillion won) chip procurement for Anthropic, Blackstone Inc. told investors that Anthropic was expected to receive a “high” speculative-grade rating from major credit rating agencies after its IPO. Blackstone Inc. is a key investor in chip financing for Anthropic and Broadcom Inc.
Blackstone Inc. had told its investment partners in recent months that it expected Anthropic to receive an investment-grade rating before the end of the year, but signaled that, in light of recent guidance from major credit rating agencies, a rating of “BB” or higher was more likely.
Anthropic’s IPO is expected to take place sometime next month. In its IPO prospectus, Anthropic disclosed commitments to spend at least $800 billion (about 1,071 trillion won) on computing infrastructure through 2045.
In a financing plan for Anthropic to lease 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), AI chips jointly developed by Google and Broadcom Inc., the $42 billion (about 56 trillion won) in senior bonds will be guaranteed by Broadcom Inc., while the $18 billion (about 24 trillion won) in subordinated bonds will be secured by lease payments made by Anthropic, according to reports.
The subordinated bonds received a speculative-grade “B+” rating from Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Morningstar DBRE. Major institutional investors such as insurers and pension funds cannot make large investments in speculative-grade bonds, so if Anthropic fails to receive an investment-grade rating, its future borrowing costs will rise.
A portfolio manager specializing in investments in U.S. technology stocks told the FT, “Ultimately, the key is access to credit. This is a very important issue: if Anthropic fails to receive an investment-grade rating, its financing costs will rise, and that would be good for no one.”
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