Benchmark "chip financing" deal: Apollo, Blackstone, and Broadcom jointly "raise" $35 billion for Anthropic to lease TPUs from Google.

The private credit market is providing unprecedented financial ammunition for the race in AI infrastructure.

On June 6, Bloomberg reported that Apollo Global Management and Blackstone had completed a $35 billion financing arrangement, with the funds to be used to purchase Google’s custom-designed tensor processing units (TPUs) for Anthropic, which will be leased to Anthropic.

Broadcom provided credit backing for the largest tranche of priority debt in the deal, with Morgan Stanley acting as an advisor and assisting in arranging the transaction. This is one of the largest private credit deals to date, marking a milestone for the emerging "chip financing" market. The deal has three tranches of pricing, with about half of the debt already distributed to other institutional investors.

According to a previous article from Wallstreetcn, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said in this week’s earnings call that the company is working with Apollo, Blackstone, and other leading investors to build an infrastructure system called the "AI XPV Platform," with plans to deploy over 20 GW of computing capacity by 2028. The Apollo transaction is the platform's first implementation.

Analysts note that the timing of this financing is quite sensitive—Anthropic has just secretly filed for a US IPO and completed a $6.5 billion funding round last month, reaching a valuation of $96.5 billion. This debt arrangement further consolidates the financial foundation for the expansion of its AI infrastructure, and sets a new benchmark for chip financing models across the industry.

Deal Structure: Three Tranches of Debt with SPV Equity

This financing uses a special purpose vehicle (SPV) structure. The SPV raises funds through a mix of debt and equity to purchase chips, then leases the chips to clients. Debt repayment mainly relies on rental income, supplemented by the chip’s long-term residual value as collateral.

The $35 billion debt is issued in three tranches. The priority A1 tranche amounts to $6 billion; the A2 tranche to $24 billion. Both are backed by Broadcom’s credit, allowing them to enjoy lower financing costs matching Broadcom's strong credit rating and receive a mid-investment grade private rating.

Sources say the A1 tranche was sold to a group of banks at a coupon 100 basis points above US Treasuries; the A2 tranche was priced at par with a 5.75% coupon, buyers including Apollo’s Athene insurance division and other institutional investors—these institutions prefer high-quality debt to match their long-term liabilities.

The third tranche, B-grade notes, totals $4.5 billion, without Broadcom’s backing, priced at par with an 8.5% coupon. In addition, Apollo’s structured finance arm Atlas SP Partners provided $800 million in equity, effectively becoming the owner of the SPV.

The core highlight of this deal is Broadcom’s “residual value support” agreement. Under this arrangement, if Anthropic fails to meet rental payment obligations within a certain period, the SPV will sell the chips to repay debt investors; if the proceeds are insufficient to cover the debt, Broadcom will compensate A1 and A2 investors 100% of the shortfall.

This mechanism mirrors the structure of another large debt deal previously—when Meta Platforms provided similar asset value protection for its Hyperion data center in Louisiana, also arranged by Morgan Stanley. The relevant bonds (so-called “Beignet bonds”) thus traded at levels similar to Meta corporate bonds.

Broadcom’s credit support gives this chip financing a significant pricing advantage and lays the foundation for the marketization of this emerging asset class.

Chip Financing Market: AI Capital Race Drives New Asset Class

This transaction is regarded by the market as a landmark event marking the formal emergence of the chip financing market. As the new wave of data center construction continues, sustained demand for specialized hardware is expected to drive rapid expansion in this niche market.

Hock Tan stated in the earnings call that Broadcom’s strategic vision is to combine its leading technology with partners who have strong balance sheets, providing Anthropic, OpenAI, and other top AI labs with sufficient computing power at the lowest cost and energy consumption.

He characterized this deal as the “first batch” for the AI XPV platform, implying more similar transactions will follow.

Analysts believe that tech companies are opening every door to the credit markets to meet the unprecedented capital demands of AI, forcing Wall Street to continually design new debt structures to keep up.

The $35 billion deal completed by Apollo, Blackstone, and Broadcom is not only one of the largest in private credit history, but also provides an industry-wide replicable financing model.

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