Anthropic Seeks to Boost Credit Line Beyond $10 Billion Ahead of IPO

Anthropic is seeking to expand its revolving credit facility beyond an initial $10 billion target as the artificial intelligence company prepares for an initial public offering.

Bloomberg reported on Aug. 18 that Anthropic is targeting about $10 billion for the facility, though the final amount could exceed that level as multiple banks compete to join the deal. The company could still set the final size at $10 billion or less because talks are ongoing.

Banks' interest is being driven by Anthropic's planned IPO. In large syndicated loans, banks that provide more capital typically collect higher fees and improve their chances of landing key roles on future capital-markets transactions. That dynamic is spurring lenders to compete for an edge in Anthropic's IPO underwriting lineup.

Anthropic has asked the core banks leading the facility to commit about $1.25 billion each. The next tier of banks is being offered allocations of about $1 billion, while lenders with lower participation are being offered $750 million or less.

The proposed facility would be more than four times the size of the five-year, $2.5 billion loan Anthropic secured last year. Morgan Stanley, Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Royal Bank of Canada and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. participated in that financing.

Anthropic is working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan on its IPO. The company has already confidentially filed listing documents and could go public on Wall Street as soon as this fall, ahead of rival OpenAI.

The company is also raising money for large AI infrastructure investments. Banks led by Morgan Stanley have recently been arranging about $15 billion in financing for a Texas data-center project that Anthropic will use. Google is providing financial backing for the project, which is expected to include about $14 billion of bridge loans and revolving credit facilities.

Anthropic's sharp revenue growth is also fueling IPO expectations. Its annualized revenue run rate reached $6.5 billion as of late July. Preliminary revenue for the latest quarter topped $1.15 billion, up from $787 million a year earlier, and adjusted operating profit was also positive.