Blackstone sees Anthropic landing 'high' junk rating after IPO

The forecast lands as Anthropic moves from private fundraising to the public markets. The company officially filed to go public earlier this week, opening a wave of speculation about how the massive IPO would affect the broader AI industry. Against that backdrop, Blackstone's shift is notable because it is the anchor investor in a recent $63 billion deal to finance Anthropic's chips — a lender-side view of the risk. The FT reports that Blackstone had earlier told deal investors the opposite, that the Claude maker would receive an investment-grade rating before 2027 rolls around.

The body ties the expected rating to Anthropic's spending. The lab has been on a spending spree, racking up large compute power deals throughout the past 12 months, which has worried investors. A high junk rating would make it more difficult and costlier for Anthropic to raise the money to keep funding that spending, which has undergirded its business. Blackstone's forecast is just a prediction, and both Anthropic and Blackstone declined to comment.