- AVGO
- ANTH.PVT
Anyone who has co-signed a loan knows how it works. The borrower pays a rate that reflects the risk, and the co-signer is on the hook if payments stop.
Broadcom Inc. (AVGO), one of the world’s most valuable chipmakers, just took that seat for Anthropic.
CEO Hock Tan spent nearly two months pushing banks to commit more than $40 billion to an Anthropic chip deal, The Wall Street Journal reported. With interest rates rising and AI ventures harder to fund, some lenders felt underpaid for the risk and weighed walking away.
Tan held last-minute weekend talks with bank executives and agreed to higher interest rates to keep them in.
The deal got done. Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Blackstone unveiled the $63 billion package on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in a press release. Earlier that day, Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, filed publicly for its IPO under the planned Nasdaq ticker ANT.
In the release, Tan said the deal “validates that there is capital available to finance such growth.”
I read the weekend scramble differently. The capital was available, but only at a higher price, and only with Broadcom backing the biggest piece. If you own an S&P 500 index fund, you own a slice of Broadcom and the promise it just made.
Broadcom’s credit is carrying Anthropic’s chip deal
A newly formed company will borrow the money and buy Broadcom’s AI chips and networking gear, according to the release. It will lease that equipment to Anthropic, with deliveries expected from 2027.
Broadcom’s role is where the risk sits. It is providing residual value support, which Reuters called effectively a significant guarantee, for an amount equal to the senior debt. In plain terms, Broadcom shields those lenders from losses if Anthropic defaults, the Journal reported.
That senior slice is about $43.5 billion, or roughly 69% of the total, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. In effect, Broadcom’s credit is the safety net under the biggest checks.
Blackstone alone provides the committed part of the junior debt beneath it, according to the release. By my math, the remaining $19.5 billion or so carries Anthropic’s risk without Broadcom’s cushion.
To me, that unprotected slice is where lenders priced Anthropic on its own.
Broadcom’s exposure to one customer keeps growing
This isn’t Broadcom’s first backstop for Anthropic. Apollo Global Management (APO) and Blackstone financed an earlier $35 billion expansion of Anthropic’s computing capacity. Broadcom’s backstop in that deal was up to $29 billion, Reuters reported, citing a company filing.
