Anthropic gets top junk credit rating from KBRA ahead of IPO

In short: Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI assistant, received a BB+ credit rating from Kroll Bond Rating Agency in June, one step below investment grade.

What happened

Anthropic secured an “issuer rating” of BB+ from Kroll Bond Rating Agency, also known as KBRA. A credit rating is like a report card for borrowers. It affects how expensive it is to borrow money.

BB+ is the highest level still considered “junk” or “speculative grade,” which means lenders see more risk than with safer borrowers. The Financial Times reported that the rating was issued in June and had not been reported before.

The rating was connected to a $35 billion financing package led by Apollo to help pay for AI chips. About $4.4 billion of that package was junior debt, which is riskier for lenders because it gets paid back later if something goes wrong. The rest was backed by a guarantee from chipmaker Broadcom.

KBRA based its decision on selected financial information Anthropic shared, such as revenue and an internal forecast. The documents said some common figures were not provided, including free cash flow (the cash left after paying bills) and EBITDA (a rough measure of operating profit). Because of the limited data, KBRA used a “risk score” approach instead of its usual full financial models.

Why it matters

Anthropic expects to spend more than $500 billion on computing and infrastructure over the next decade. A stronger credit rating can lower interest costs and attract more large, cautious investors, like pension funds and insurance companies. That could make it easier for Anthropic to fund the chips and data centers needed to run and improve its AI systems.

Source: Financial Times