Blackstone has told investors in the $63B deal that financed Anthropic’s chips to expect a high junk credit rating once the company finishes its initial public offering, according to the Financial Times.
The reversal is notable because Blackstone had previously told the same investors to expect investment grade before 2027 arrived. The firm now points to the double B range, the top tier of speculative grade.
What the downgrade would cost
The forecast is a prediction, not a rating action. Both Anthropic and Blackstone declined to comment when TechCrunch asked.
If it holds, borrowing gets harder and more expensive at precisely the moment Anthropic needs capital. The company has spent a year signing enormous compute contracts and filed this week to go public, and a junk grade would push it toward partners with stronger balance sheets to back its debt.
Those partners are already showing up. Nvidia is in talks to guarantee debt for an Anthropic data center in West Virginia, co-signing a customer’s construction loans.
A market that stopped assuming the best
The FT’s reporting lands in a week when investors repriced AI risk across the board: OpenAI trimmed its own raise, three hyperscalers guided capex below expectations, and credit agencies are being asked harder questions about who ultimately holds the leases.
For Anthropic, the credit file matters as much as the model roadmap. Lenders want to know the cash flows, not the benchmark scores.
