Blackstone warns Anthropic may get junk rating after IPO

Blackstone ↘ 1.73% has told investors that Anthropic may not win an investment-grade credit rating after it goes public. The Financial Times reported that the private capital firm now expects the AI company to receive a "high" junk rating, a change from what it had told investors before. The warning matters because Blackstone is an anchor investor in Project North Star, Anthropic's chip financing deal. It also comes days before Anthropic's planned Nasdaq ↗ 0.60% listing, which is expected to be among the largest in history.ft.com

What Blackstone said

Blackstone told investors that Anthropic is more likely to be rated in the double-B range or higher, according to a Seeking Alpha summary on TradingView of the FT story. Double-B is the top tier of speculative grade. An investment-grade rating would let Anthropic borrow more cheaply to pay for AI infrastructure. The same report said Anthropic has more than $112 billion in cash and equivalents, and investors expect the IPO could raise about $100 billion. A junk rating from agencies such as Moody's ↗ 1.04% or S&P Global ↗ 1.28% would make it more expensive for Anthropic to borrow in the corporate bond market, TipRanks noted.tipranks.com+1

Recent reports describe Project North Star as a $63 billion deal. Earlier in October it was described as a $60 billion package, split into $42 billion of senior debt guaranteed by Broadcom ↘ 5.48% and an $18 billion junior tranche. Blackstone funds agreed to take half of the junior tranche at a coupon of 10%, according to Communicate, which cited the FT. The money pays for about 1.5 gigawatts of custom chips from Google Alphabet Inc. ↘ 1.45%. At the time, Blackstone told its partners the deal could earn high returns, with lower borrowing costs possible if Anthropic went public and its credit improved.communicateonline.me

An existing junk rating

Anthropic is already rated below investment grade. KBRA gave it a rating one notch below investment grade in June, and the new junior debt was expected to be rated about the same, South Korea's Financial News reported. That outlet said Anthropic hoped to move up to investment grade before its IPO but was unlikely to do so soon.en.fnnews.com

IPO timing

Anthropic filed its S-1 on October 26 and plans to list its Class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker "ANT," the company said. The filing showed first-half 2026 revenue of $16.3 billion and a net loss of $80.7 billion. About $72.4 billion of that loss came from an accounting charge tied to convertible notes, Fortune reported. The company is aiming for a valuation of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion and could start trading as soon as the week of November 16, according to Investing.com, which cited The Wall Street Journal News Corp ↘ 1.37%. The filing also shows about $417 billion in future payments owed for compute, CNBC reported. That leaves investors weighing a possible $2 trillion valuation for a company whose credit is still below investment grade.anthropic.com+3