“Simply Absurd”: Why Anthropic Can’t Sell Investment-Grade Debt, as the IPO Countdown Continues - Yahoo Finance
By Google News AI ·
DoubleLine Capital founder Jeffrey Gundlach called Anthropic's hopes for an investment-grade bond rating "simply absurd" as the AI lab lines up its IPO.
Anthropic has signed more than $800 billion of compute commitments, including deals with Amazon, Alphabet's Google and Broadcom, and Bill Gurley says those weigh on its credit like a lease or a loan.
Its suppliers already stand behind its credit: Broadcom guarantees $43 billion of the debt Anthropic raised to buy its chips, and Amazon lends to it as it uses AWS.
For all three suppliers, the IPO's cash matters more than any rating, and Broadcom has the most riding on it, with $66.5 billion of debt against $16.2 billion of cash at the end of its last fiscal year.
Anthropic wants an investment-grade credit rating. DoubleLine Capital founder Jeffrey Gundlach thinks that's a fantasy, and he said so on X on Sunday:
"Anthropic hoping to get an investment grade bond rating is simply absurd. Any rating agency that might give such a rating should be investigated/shut down immediately."
And Anthropic isn't the only company with a stake in the answer. Amazon (AMZN:NASDAQ), Alphabet (GOOG) and Broadcom (AVGO:NASDAQ) all count Anthropic's commitments in their backlogs, and Broadcom already guarantees much of the debt Anthropic took on to buy its chips.
The argument started on X on Friday, when The Nvidia Way author Tae Kim asked:
"In what universe is SpaceX investment grade but Anthropic isn't after the S-1 revealed its inference economics, limited cash burn alongside exponential growth, leadership in the most important market of this generation and net cash position? Are the rating agencies insane?"
Benchmark's Bill Gurley had a quick answer:
"Tae – calm down and look at the future commitments. Those are future claims on…
Originally published by Google News AI