Anthropic credit facility set to exceed $10B ahead of IPO: report

Anthropic’s revolving credit facility is expected to exceed its roughly $10 billion target as banks compete for roles in the artificial intelligence company’s planned initial public offering, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Banks compete for roles in Anthropic’s IPO

Anthropic is considering expanding its revolving credit facility beyond the $10 billion level, although discussions remain ongoing and the company could ultimately keep the facility at its target or below it.

Banks are seeking larger commitments to strengthen their positions ahead of the IPO.

Anthropic has asked the most active lenders involved in arranging the credit line to commit about $1.25 billion each.

A second group of active banks has been encouraged to offer around $1 billion, while commitments for less active participants could be about $750 million or lower.

In syndicated lending, larger commitments generally result in higher fees for banks.

A larger role in the credit facility can also help a bank position itself for a more active role in a subsequent capital markets transaction.

Credit line would mark major increase

A facility above $10 billion would represent a substantial increase from the $2.5 billion five-year revolving credit facility Anthropic secured last year.

That facility included Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

The potential expansion also follows discussions around a much larger debt package for Anthropic-related data-center infrastructure.

Banks led by Morgan Stanley were previously in talks to arrange $15 billion of debt for a Texas data-center project, with Alphabet’s Google providing backing. The proposed financing included a $14 billion bridge loan and a revolving credit facility.

Anthropic’s financing activity comes as the AI boom has revived the IPO market.

Companies going public this year have raised $257 billion, excluding blank-check firms and other financial vehicles, according to Bloomberg data. That is the highest amount raised in a year since 2021.

Revenue growth fuels IPO ambitions

Anthropic’s rapidly increasing revenue has strengthened expectations surrounding its potential public listing.

The company’s annualized revenue run rate reached more than $65 billion by the end of July, according to Bloomberg News.

The company reported preliminary quarterly revenue of more than $11.5 billion in its latest completed quarter, compared with $787 million in the same period a year earlier.

It also reported positive adjusted operating income for the quarter, according to documents cited by Bloomberg.

Reuters separately reported that Anthropic is projecting revenue of roughly $190 billion to $200 billion in 2028.

Anthropic confidentially filed for a US IPO in June and is expected to potentially debut as soon as this fall, ahead of rival OpenAI. The company has also been meeting with investors as it prepares for a possible large-scale listing.

The planned credit facility expansion highlights the growing financing needs surrounding Anthropic as it scales its AI business while preparing for the public markets.

However, the final size of the revolver has not been decided.