Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) agreed on Thursday to provide Anthropic with as much as $42 billion in lending tied to the AI company’s long-term plan to secure massive amounts of computing capacity. The arrangement, disclosed in Anthropic’s IPO paperwork, positions Broadcom not only as a chip supplier but also as a major source of funding for the infrastructure buildout.
Anthropic’s prospectus, reported by Reuters, noted that the Broadcom relationship stretches across hardware, leasing and financing, setting it apart from other backers such as Amazon that mainly contribute cloud reach and distribution for Anthropic’s Claude model.
The IPO document also outlined structural features of the deal, including Broadcom’s ability to name a financing partner and the possibility that the debt could be converted into Anthropic equity. Anthropic said it does not expect any notes to be sold before the IPO is completed.
According to Reuters, Anthropic has committed to a five-year lease totaling $125.2 billion for tensor processing unit computing capacity, and the convertible note could cover roughly one-third of that amount. The company said it expanded its partnership in April with Broadcom and Google for access to multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity starting in 2027.
Seaport Research analyst Jay Goldberg framed Broadcom’s move as a response to Nvidia’s use of its balance sheet to support chip demand, saying, “Nvidia is putting in place a massive amount of its balance sheet, and Broadcom is having to follow suit.”
Rothschild & Co managing partner Robert Leitao also questioned whether the revenue base can keep pace with the scale of financing, saying, “It feels that there’s quite a concentrated bet right now on two companies being able to generate enough revenues to support all the financing that’s happened."
Anthropic flagged “potential conflicts of interest” tied to relying on Broadcom for both hardware supply and financing, the prospectus said. The company also warned that Broadcom’s pricing and hardware decisions could influence Anthropic’s ability to obtain enough compute.
The filing said Anthropic placed cash into a restricted account for Broadcom’s benefit in April 2026 and could have to add more funds under certain conditions. Anthropic also cautioned that some defaults could accelerate a large portion of lease payments while limiting access to the $42 billion facility for those obligations.
The prospectus indicated that Anthropic is expected to become Broadcom’s biggest compute customer in 2027, and Broadcom projects AI semiconductor revenue of about $115 billion in fiscal 2027 and $230 billion in fiscal 2028.
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