The race for AI compute is spilling into some of the largest debt deals private credit has ever seen. According to Bloomberg and other outlets, Broadcom is discussing a package of more than $60 billion in debt to fund custom AI chips and networking gear for customers such as Anthropic. Some reports put the figure under discussion at up to $80 billion, and potentially as high as $100 billion.
Anthropic Does Not Buy the Chips
The heart of the deal is its structure, not its headline number. According to the reporting, Anthropic does not purchase the chips directly. A separately created special-purpose vehicle uses investor money to buy the hardware — largely Google TPUs — and then leases it to Anthropic. As a result, neither the multibillion-dollar hardware assets nor the debt raised to buy them lands on Anthropic's own balance sheet.
The appeal is clear. Anthropic gets the compute while avoiding depreciating hardware and the large borrowing that would otherwise sit against its own credit. For a fast-growing AI company preparing to go public, it is a way to scale compute while keeping the financial drag out of sight.
Structure SPV buys chips → leases to Anthropic (off-balance-sheet)
Chip-lease debt in ~60 days About $71B
Prior deal (June) ~$35B AI XPV (Broadcom, Apollo, Blackstone)
A Bigger Version of June's $35B Deal
This is not a bolt from the blue. In June 2026, Broadcom, Apollo Global Management and Blackstone struck a roughly $35 billion "AI XPV" partnership to expand Anthropic's compute using Broadcom custom chips and networking equipment. The new package is effectively a scaled-up version of that structure.
Pulling the reports together: a junior tranche of roughly $30 billion is paired with a senior secured tranche of about $60–70 billion. The SPV issues the debt, and Broadcom guarantees part of the senior tranche. That backstop is why the senior notes carry something close to Broadcom's investment-grade rating rather than Anthropic's.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Raising party | Broadcom (for customers including Anthropic) |
| Method | SPV issues debt → Broadcom backstops part of senior tranche |
| Tranches | ~$30B junior + ~$60–70B senior secured |
| Chips & lease | SPV buys chips, leases them to Anthropic |
| Precedent | June's ~$35B AI XPV (Broadcom, Apollo, Blackstone) |
Why It Matters: Risk on the Move
The structure is a window into where the risk of AI-infrastructure spending is going. Anthropic gets compute and lightens its financial load, but the risk does not vanish — it shifts to the SPVs, the private-credit investors, and Broadcom as guarantor. Observers noted Broadcom's credit-default swaps widened around this period. If AI demand does not hold up as expected, how this off-balance-sheet compute debt unwinds remains an untested question.
· The Next Web — Broadcom seeks more than $60bn in debt to fund AI chips for Anthropic
· Quartz — Broadcom seeks up to $80 billion in debt for AI chip deal
· Seeking Alpha — Broadcom engages with lenders to secure $60B for AI chip financing
· Yahoo Finance — Anthropic SPVs stack $71 billion in chip-lease debt in 60 days
- Broadcom is pursuing $60B+ in debt (reportedly up to $100B) to fund AI chips for customers including Anthropic
- Anthropic does not buy the chips; an SPV purchases and leases them in an off-balance-sheet structure
- Broadcom backstops part of the senior tranche, lifting those notes toward its own investment-grade rating
- Anthropic has stacked about $71B in chip-lease debt in ~60 days, kept off its books
- Risk does not disappear — it shifts to SPVs, private-credit investors and Broadcom, and remains untested