Banks and Blackstone Line Up a $63 Billion Vehicle to Lease Broadcom AI Chips to Anthropic

What happened

The timing tracks Anthropic's listing process closely: hours after Anthropic publicly filed its IPO prospectus on the morning of October 26, the four institutions jointly announced the transaction. Dow Jones reported the same day that the deal is part of Broadcom's existing strategic compute capacity agreement; Reuters reported the same day that it is one of the largest debt deals tied to the AI buildout.

The structure is a newly formed special purpose vehicle plus committed financing: the vehicle uses committed funds from the four institutions to buy Broadcom XPU AI accelerators and networking solutions, then leases them to Anthropic, with deliveries expected to start in 2027. Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley arrange the first-lien financing, Blackstone is the sole provider of the committed portion of the second-lien financing, and Broadcom provides residual value support to the vehicle equal to the first-lien portion.

Executives from the four institutions and Broadcom each commented in the joint announcement: Blackstone president Jon Gray said rapidly growing AI demand is creating an opportunity to finance compute capacity at scale; Morgan Stanley co-president Dan Simkowitz called the transaction a milestone in the next buildout of AI compute capacity; Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said demand for AI compute continues to grow at an extraordinary pace and capital is available to finance that growth. For background, Reuters notes Apollo and Blackstone had previously agreed to finance a $35 billion expansion of Anthropic's AI computing capacity; this site reported on October 1 on the up-to-$42 billion Broadcom financing arrangement disclosed in the prospectus, which took the form of convertible notes for leasing Broadcom chips and differs in structure from today's four-bank special purpose vehicle transaction.

Key facts

1. Deal size: $63 billion, with committed financing from the four institutions, executed through a newly formed special purpose vehicle.
2. What is bought and leased: Broadcom XPU AI accelerators and networking solutions, leased to Anthropic; deliveries expected to start in 2027.
3. Financing layers: Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley arrange the first lien; Blackstone is the sole provider of the committed portion of the second lien.
4. Residual value support: Broadcom provides residual value support to the vehicle equal to the first-lien portion.
5. Agreement: The transaction is part of Broadcom's previously announced strategic compute capacity agreement.
6. Announcement date: October 26, 2026, announced jointly by the four institutions; Anthropic publicly filed its IPO prospectus the same day.