Anthropic’s IPO prospectus lists a lot of partnerships, but one of them doesn’t fit the pattern. Broadcom supplies compute, leases the equipment, and finances the purchase too: up to $42 billion as a convertible note. Reuters read it out of the filing, and CNBC published it on October 1 at 12:20 UTC.
A third of the TPU bill
The convertible note could finance about a third of the $125.2 billion that Anthropic has committed to a five-year lease of TPU computing capacity. That number is the single largest line inside the $518 billion of compute commitments that came out of the same prospectus three days ago.
Google and Broadcom have built several TPU generations together. In April, Anthropic announced an expanded partnership with both, giving it multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity starting in 2027.
Broadcom may designate a financing partner, and the debt instruments can convert into Anthropic shares. Anthropic says it doesn’t expect any notes to be sold before the IPO completes.
The clauses in the fine print
Two sentences in the prospectus are awkward enough that Anthropic had to write them down itself.
First: in April 2026 Anthropic deposited cash into a restricted account for Broadcom’s benefit, and it may have to add more under certain circumstances.
Second: certain payment or performance defaults could make a substantial portion of the lease obligations immediately due — while limiting the company’s ability to use the $42 billion facility to cover those payments. So the financing disappears at precisely the moment it would be needed.
On top of that sits a conflict of interest that Anthropic names as such: Broadcom both supplies the hardware and acts as financing partner, which could affect Anthropic’s access to computing power. Broadcom’s pricing and hardware decisions could affect procurement.
$60 billion on Wall Street
Bloomberg added to the picture the next day. Broadcom’s syndicate is gathering $60 billion of fresh AI chip financing meant to benefit Anthropic and others. Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are involved and are poised to send out syndication letters for a $42 billion Class A senior-secured tranche. Broadcom provides residual value support that effectively backstops that portion, and Blackstone is part of the deal. It hasn’t been announced yet.
Who is paying whose revenue
Anthropic is expected to become the largest customer in Broadcom’s chip design business in 2027. Broadcom projects roughly $115 billion in AI semiconductor revenue for fiscal 2027 and $230 billion for fiscal 2028. Part of that will be paid with money Broadcom lent out itself.
Robert Leitao of Rothschild & Co put it this way: “It feels that there’s quite a concentrated bet right now on two companies being able to generate enough revenues to support all the financing that’s happened.” Seaport analyst Jay Goldberg frames it differently: “Nvidia is putting in place a massive amount of its balance sheet, and Broadcom is having to follow suit.”
Both are true at once. Nvidia showed that a chipmaker can put its balance sheet to work selling chips, and Broadcom can hardly afford to sit it out. At the same time, the end of that chain is a company that reported a $42 billion loss and wants to go public at a $2 trillion valuation. Broadcom has protected itself properly, with residual value support and a restricted cash account. Anthropic had to write down the clause saying the lifeline won’t hold in an emergency.
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