A Banker’s Guide to Anthropic
Why the IPO is a credit event
The TomorrowX Summit in Austin and the Fintech Nerdcon in San Diego are upcoming events where the author will be present. They will also be in New York. Anthropic is set to list on the stock market next week, with the money raised being just the beginning. The company plans to raise up to $100 billion through its IPO. Anthropic has not yet tapped into the corporate bond market, relying instead on equity investors and suppliers who have contributed over $140 billion.
A $15 billion revolving credit facility from banks managing its IPO has already been secured. The bond market is the bigger prize, and Anthropic's bankers, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, are lobbying Moody’s and S&P to grant an investment-grade rating. A rating of BBB– or higher would grant Anthropic access to the $13 trillion global investment-grade market.
Suppliers, such as Broadcom, are vested in Anthropic's success and are willing to back its debt. An investment-grade rating would enable future financings to be based on Anthropic's own credit, rather than its suppliers'. An AIR Platforms rating of BBB, which is two notches above OpenAI, would be beneficial for Anthropic, but it is not a "nationally recognized statistical rating organization" and does not count.
Key to the outcome of Anthropic's bond market ambitions is its cash flow profile, and the ability to generate free cash flow to repay debt.
Written by urgent.news from Net Interest's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
