Project North Star: Anthropic Structures 60 Billion Dollar Debt Deal for 1.5 Gigawatts of Google TPUs

Record Structured Debt Package for AI Silicon Procurement

Financial Times reports published during the weekend of October 18, 2026, revealed that artificial intelligence developer Anthropic is finalizing a structured 60 billion dollar debt financing vehicle code-named Project North Star. The transaction stands as the largest hardware procurement financing arrangement recorded in the technology industry.

The capital is earmarked to fund the procurement of custom Google-designed Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) totaling approximately 1.5 gigawatts of compute capacity. The deal utilizes a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) framework, wherein the financing entity acquires the hardware from Google and Broadcom and leases it back to Anthropic under a five-year agreement.

Broadcom Senior Guarantee and Blackstone Double-Digit Coupon

Project North Star divides its capital structure into two tiers to attract distinct classes of capital market investors:

The senior tranche consists of approximately 42 billion dollars in senior-secured debt backed and guaranteed by Broadcom, the semiconductor partner that co-develops physical TPU silicon alongside Google. A syndicate of Wall Street investment banks led by Citigroup, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley is structuring and distributing the senior notes.

The junior tranche comprises 18 billion dollars in subordinated debt backed by Anthropic's five-year lease payments. Private equity firm Blackstone was offered an anchor commitment of 9 billion dollars representing half of this junior layer. The junior notes offer an annual coupon of 10 percent, with all-in yields climbing past 10 percent when factoring in origination fees and original issue discounts.

The double-digit yield represents a significant markup over standard corporate debt for similarly rated issuers, which typically prices near 7 percent. This spread underscores the elevated risk premium institutional managers demand to finance high-depreciation compute assets.

The Structural Transition from Venture Equity to Private Credit

Project North Star illustrates a fundamental structural shift in frontier AI balance-sheet management. Leading model developers previously met infrastructure expenditures through dilutive equity rounds backed by venture capital firms.

With hardware requirements now scaling into the tens of billions of dollars, developers have migrated toward structured debt and institutional private credit markets. This financing model allows Anthropic to scale computing capacity for future Claude models without surrendering equity control, while placing multi-billion-dollar recurring lease obligations directly on company cash flows.

Triangular Ecosystem Alignment and Hardware Depreciation Pressures

The vehicle deepens commercial interdependence between Google, Broadcom, and Anthropic. For Google and Broadcom, the multi-year framework locks in silicon demand and deployment volume against dominant GPU offerings from Nvidia.

For Anthropic, assuming 60 billion dollars in compute-linked obligations requires continuous exponential software monetization. If enterprise revenue fails to track debt service requirements, or if architectural breakthroughs accelerate hardware obsolescence, fixed lease obligations to the special-purpose vehicle could create substantial balance-sheet stress.