Banks plan a $21 billion bond sale of Anthropic chip debt as Fitch sizes Broadcom's $43.5 billion guarantee

Banks are preparing to sell about $21 billion of high-grade bonds↗ as soon as the first quarter of 2027, taking up to half of the $42 billion they lent inside chipmaker Broadcom's▲+3.96% — Broadcom, up 3.96 percent today $63 billion package for the AI lab AnthropicPVT$350B — Anthropic, private, latest valuation $350B off their own books ¹. Other banks are expected to submit commitments to join the group in the coming days ¹.

The package works like a rental. A special-purpose company, a standalone vehicle created for the deal, is set up to borrow the money, buy Broadcom's chips and lease them to Anthropic, whose lease payments repay the debt ¹. No hardware has moved yet: deliveries are expected to start in calendar 2027 ².

Bank of America▲+0.29% — Bank of America, up 0.29 percent today, Citigroup▲+1.45% — Citigroup, up 1.45 percent today and Morgan Stanley▲+2.10% — Morgan Stanley, up 2.10 percent today hold the first lien, first in line for repayment, on the $42 billion senior tranche; Blackstone▼−1.94% — Blackstone, down 1.94 percent today is the sole second-lien lender, paid behind them, with $9 billion ¹². Broadcom guarantees what the hardware will still be worth on that senior debt, a backstop called residual value support ¹. The package came together Monday; the bond exit is what is new ¹.

Fitch puts numbers on the guarantee

Hours later, the rating agency Fitch affirmed Broadcom at A- with a positive outlook↗, and put figures on what it is blessing ³. Fitch counts more than $70 billion of lease financing across two customer structures, headlined by a $43.5 billion residual-value pact, and will add about $4 billion to Broadcom's adjusted debt by fiscal 2027, scaling to roughly $15 billion by fiscal 2029 ³.

Against that sits post-dividend free cash flow above $30 billion this fiscal year ³. The tripwires are explicit. If backstop-adjusted net debt, borrowings with Fitch's lease guarantees folded in, crosses $150 billion, the outlook drops to Stable; $185 billion brings a downgrade review if hardware values crack ³. Fitch also warned the buildout rests on circular ties among suppliers, labs and lenders, which a pullback in hyperscaler spending, the giant cloud operators' chip budgets, would break ³.

Who ends up holding the lease

The bond market decides. Anthropic filed Nasdaq IPO paperwork on October 26↗ showing $16.3 billion of first-half revenue and an $80.8 billion six-month net loss, $72.4 billion of it non-cash swings on convertible notes ⁴. Investors have already absorbed more than $455 billion of AI-linked borrowing this year, and money managers are growing warier ¹.

Risk is priced inside the deal: the senior tranche was pitched near 7 percent, while Blackstone's junior slice, which sits outside the guarantee, was pitched above 10↗ ⁵⁸. Broadcom chief executive Hock Tan says the transaction "validates that there is capital available to finance such growth" ². The stock rose 4 percent anyway ⁶.

More chip leases are already queuing

The queue keeps growing. SpaceX▲+1.59% — SpaceX, up 1.59 percent today committed to a roughly $40 billion Apollo-led chip lease on October 26↗ ⁷, and Broadcom is arranging more than $50 billion for OpenAIPVT$500B — OpenAI, private, latest valuation $500B ⁸. Broadcom supplies the silicon and guarantees its remaining value; the bond buyer owns the rent, and the risk that it keeps arriving. Commitments are expected within days, and the bonds' final size and timing depend on market conditions ¹. Anthropic's first public quarters land in between.