Anthropic is offering Blackstone a 10% coupon to finance an artificial intelligence chip acquisition. The total deal value is $60 billion, according to the Financial Times. Total returns are expected to exceed 10% after accounting for fees and discounts.
The financing package, dubbed Project North Star, is the largest chip-related debt arrangement to date. The deal supports Anthropic's purchase of Google’s custom tensor processing units (TPUs).
Blackstone-managed funds will provide $9 billion in junior debt. This investment represents half of the total $18 billion junior financing tranche.
Anthropic’s five-year chip lease payments back the financing. The yield is significantly higher than the 7% average paid by similarly rated borrowers in public bond markets.