Anthropic’s $63 Billion Financing Deal Puts Broadcom on the Hook for Potential Support of About $43 Billion
Key Facts
Bank of America, Blackstone, Citi and Morgan Stanley announced a $63 billion financing deal on October 26, 2026, to provide AI computing capacity to Anthropic using Broadcom technology. The deal highlights the growing role of financial institutions in funding the infrastructure AI companies need, alongside chip suppliers. Under the announced structure, a special-purpose entity will buy AI accelerators, or XPUs, and networking solutions from Broadcom. The entity will then lease the equipment to Anthropic, which will use it to expand its computing capacity. Broadcom said expected deliveries will begin in calendar year 2027.
Funding is split between two tranches, with different parties arranging or committing to each. Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley are arranging the senior first-lien tranche. Blackstone is the sole provider of the committed portion of the second-lien financing, according to the joint announcement. Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter, estimated first-lien loans at about $43.5 billion. That tranche represents 69% of the total $63 billion financing, according to the sources.
Broadcom’s role in the deal extends beyond selling equipment: it is providing the entity with residual-value support equal to the value of the first-lien tranche. The company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says the support is a contingent obligation that Broadcom considers unlikely to be realized. Total support rises as AI racks are delivered and deployed, and declines as the customer makes its lease payments. The support therefore is not equal to the total financing of $63 billion. Broadcom’s maximum potential undiscounted liability is about $43 billion when the racks are deployed.
The filing sets out how the liability would be calculated if the customer defaulted and the assets were sold. According to the filing’s terms, ways to limit Broadcom’s exposure include assuming the lease or reselling the racks to the vendor at a fixed price under certain conditions, or arranging their sale. In the asset-sale scenario, potential liability is calculated as the difference between 72.5% of the amounts due under the lease and the value of the racks when sold. This calculation makes the value of the recovered equipment central to estimating the obligation, alongside remaining lease payments. The actual support amount remains tied to what happens to the assets and to the customer’s payments, according to the filing.
The new deal follows an earlier $35 billion agreement to finance an expansion of Anthropic’s computing capacity, approved by Apollo and Blackstone with Broadcom. Broadcom’s support in that earlier deal was up to $29 billion, Reuters reported, citing a company filing. Reuters said Moody’s warned that risks could rise if multiple transactions were concluded in a short period to meet the financing needs of large, advanced AI labs. The comparison between the two agreements puts the new financing in the context of expanding arrangements to fund AI infrastructure. It also highlights Broadcom’s recurring provision of residual-value support in these arrangements.
Broadcom shares closed at $351.81 on October 28 and $344.94 on October 29, 2026. In the October 27 session, the stock rose 4% after the deal was announced, according to the Associated Press. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.2% in the same session. These moves show that the stock did not follow a single direction in the sessions surrounding the announcement. The available closing-price data do not establish that the October 29 decline was caused by the financing deal.
The market is watching for equipment deliveries under the computing-capacity agreement, which are expected to begin in 2027, according to the joint announcement. Anthropic has said an expanded agreement with Google and Broadcom would provide it with several gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity, expected to enter service beginning in 2027. In the context of demand for this capacity, the company said its annualized revenue run rate exceeded $30 billion in 2026, compared with about $9 billion at the end of 2025. Broadcom, meanwhile, forecast fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of about $34.8 billion, up 93% from the same period a year earlier. The expected start of deliveries in calendar year 2027 remains the deal’s announced timeline.