Blackstone plans to raise at least $36 billion in debt to fund Google custom-chip compute infrastructure for Anthropic.

Blackstone is in preliminary discussions with investors to raise at least $36 billion in debt financing for Anthropic to use Google's custom AI chips. According to people familiar with the matter, the financing amount, structure, and Blackstone's role as potential deal lead remain under discussion and subject to adjustment. If completed at the current size, this financing would surpass the $35 billion debt facility arranged by Apollo and Blackstone approximately two months ago for Anthropic to lease Google's custom chips—already one of the largest transactions in the private credit market.

The escalating capital demands reflect AI companies' insatiable appetite for computing power. Anthropic had previously planned, with Google's support, to lease high-performance chips across five data centers. Google's position as both an early investor in Anthropic and continuous equity stake accumulator has deepened the partnership: the company is now supporting Anthropic's data center financing, tying the two firms ever closer in their capital and computing collaboration.

This latest financing emerges as Anthropic has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO, hoping to debut ahead of rival OpenAI. As Silicon Valley races to expand AI infrastructure, technology companies are pushing various financing tools in the credit market to their limits, forcing Wall Street to design increasingly complex debt structures to accommodate the demand.

However, market concerns over AI investment returns are intensifying. Some technology companies have recently been forced to pay higher interest rates for new financing, signaling growing sensitivity in the market toward both the cost of AI infrastructure and questions about profitability.