Via abc7news.com
Blackstone explores second massive debt package to finance Anthropic’s chip usage
The investment giant is reportedly gauging interest in another roughly $36 billion deal to fund AI compute infrastructure, doubling down on private credit's expanding role in the AI arms race.
Blackstone is in early discussions with investors about assembling a second large debt financing package to bankroll Anthropic’s use of Google’s custom chips. The deal, if it materializes, would follow a first package of roughly $35-36 billion that closed just months ago.
What we know so far
Bloomberg reported on August 4 that Blackstone has begun sounding out investors on the second tranche of financing. The structure mirrors the first deal: a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, purchases Google’s Tensor Processing Units and then leases them to Anthropic.
The first package was a joint effort between Blackstone and Apollo Global Management. That deal closed around late May to early June 2026 and came in at approximately $35-36 billion. A portion of that initial debt was expected to hit the secondary market by July 2026. The proposed second package is reportedly expected to be similarly sized, with figures of at least $36 billion being discussed. It remains in the preliminary stage, so final terms, investor commitments, and timing are still very much in flux.
Private credit’s AI moment
The SPV structure is the key innovation here. By creating a separate legal entity that owns the chips and leases them to Anthropic, the deal insulates investors from Anthropic’s broader corporate risk. If Anthropic were to face financial trouble, the SPV still owns the hardware. It’s a financing model borrowed from real estate and aircraft leasing, now repurposed for silicon.
This approach lets Anthropic expand its AI infrastructure, including data centers across multiple US states, without the balance sheet strain of directly purchasing billions of dollars in hardware.
Why this matters beyond AI
The combined value of both packages, if the second closes at a similar level, would approach $72 billion. For context, the entire US leveraged loan market issues roughly $1.4 trillion in total annually.
The secondary market activity around the first deal is also worth watching closely. A portion of that initial debt was expected to enter the secondary market by July 2026, suggesting institutional appetite was strong enough to support active trading of these instruments.