Broadcom has agreed to lend Anthropic up to $42 billion to finance infrastructure spending, according to Anthropic's IPO prospectus. The arrangement makes Broadcom both a chip supplier and a financing partner to the AI lab, a structure Anthropic itself says creates potential conflicts of interest.
A $42 billion credit line tied to chip leasing
Broadcom has agreed to lend Anthropic up to $42 billion to finance infrastructure spending, a detail disclosed in Anthropic's IPO prospectus. The filing shows Broadcom's ties to Anthropic run through compute supply, equipment leasing and financing at once, setting it apart from partners such as Amazon, which mainly supplies cloud infrastructure and distribution for Anthropic's Claude model.
As part of the deal, Broadcom could designate a financing partner, and the debt instruments could convert into Anthropic shares. Anthropic said in the filing it doesn't expect any notes to be sold before its IPO closes. The convertible note could finance about a third of the $125.2 billion commitment Anthropic has made for a five-year lease of tensor processing unit computing capacity.
Reciprocal spending draws scrutiny
In turn, Anthropic is set to become the largest customer in Broadcom's chip design business next year, even as the AI lab prepares a public offering that could value it at $2 trillion. Robert Leitao, managing partner of Rothschild & Co, said the arrangement reflects a narrow bet on just two companies. Nvidia has taken a similar approach in recent years, and according to Seaport Research analyst Jay Goldberg: "Broadcom is having to follow suit."
Google and Broadcom have worked together on several generations of TPUs. Anthropic announced in April an expanded partnership with both companies that will give it access to multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU compute capacity starting in 2027.
Anthropic flags conflicts of interest
Anthropic disclosed that Broadcom's dual role as hardware supplier and financing partner creates potential conflicts of interest that could affect its access to computing power, the prospectus states. The company also warned that Broadcom's pricing and hardware decisions could limit its ability to procure enough infrastructure.
Related to the convertible debt, the filing says Anthropic deposited cash into a restricted account for Broadcom's benefit in April 2026 and may need to contribute more under certain conditions. It also warned that payment or performance defaults could make a large share of its lease obligations come due immediately, while limiting its ability to tap the $42 billion facility to cover those payments. Broadcom and Anthropic both declined to comment.
Broadcom's largest compute customer next year is expected to be Anthropic. The chipmaker projects AI semiconductor revenue of about $115 billion in fiscal 2027 and $230 billion in fiscal 2028.
Source: CNBC
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