Anthropic May Expand Credit Facility Beyond $10 Bn Ahead Of IPO

Anthropic PBC is looking to expand its revolving credit facility beyond its roughly $10 billion target, ahead of its much-anticipated initial public offering, Bloomberg reported. Talks are still ongoing, and the company could eventually settle for a credit line at $10 billion or lower, the report added.

The possible expansion of the revolver has caught the attention of several banks hoping to secure roles in Anthropic's IPO, according to the report.

The development follows reports that banks led by Morgan Stanley were in discussions to arrange $15 billion in debt financing for an Anthropic data-centre project in Texas, backed by Alphabet's Google. That financing package, meant for data-centre developer Nexus Data Centres, was said to include a $14 billion bridge loan along with a revolving credit facility.

Anthropic is working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan on its IPO. Reports suggest the company has asked its most active lenders on the credit line to commit around $1.25 billion each, with the next tier of banks encouraged to offer close to $1 billion, and less active participants expected to commit $750 million or lower.

In syndicated loans, a bank's commitment size generally determines the fees it earns from the borrower. When a large capital markets transaction is on the horizon, banks that take on bigger loan commitments are often rewarded with more prominent roles in the subsequent deal, which in this case would be Anthropic's IPO.

Anthropic Mirrors SpaceX's Playbook

Anthropic's approach mirrors a strategy used by SpaceX, which raised its revolving credit facility to $5 billion in May from an earlier $1.5 billion, just a month ahead of its record-setting IPO, according to its prospectus. The bank group for that offering was largely unchanged from the one on its credit facility, suggesting a similar pattern of lenders positioning themselves ahead of a listing.

A revolver exceeding $10 billion would mark a sharp jump from the $2.5 billion five-year facility Anthropic had secured last year, backed by Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Canada and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, as stated in a LinkedIn post at the time.

Backdrop Of A Booming IPO Market

The broader AI boom has energised the IPO market, with listings this year raising $257 billion, excluding blank-check firms and similar vehicles, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. That marks the highest annual total raised since 2021.

Anthropic and rival OpenAI have both filed confidential paperwork for public listings, with Anthropic expected to debut on Wall Street as early as this fall, ahead of OpenAI. Separately, Bank of America extended a $520 million credit line to OpenAI earlier this summer, joining an existing undrawn facility set up by competitors. That move pushed OpenAI's available capital past $5 billion, Bloomberg reported.

Anthropic's run rate, a metric that projects full-year revenue from a shorter period, reached $65 billion by the end of July. The sharp rise in revenue has further strengthened the case for the company's planned listing.