NEW YORK: Broadcom Inc, fresh off the launch of a US$60bil debt financing to help fund Anthropic PBC’s artificial intelligence (AI) build-out, is already sketching out plans for its next blockbuster deal.
The company has held early discussions to arrange financing to help OpenAI purchase the custom AI chips that the pair is developing together, according to people familiar with the matter.
No formal process has begun and plans could change, though early talks indicate the two companies could seek to raise around US$30bil of debt for the OpenAI chips, said one of the people, all of whom asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.
The move is part of a surge in recent deals to pay for AI infrastructure. Oracle Corp is also in talks with lenders to line up money for the purchase of chips.
It’s unclear how soon Broadcom’s latest financing, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, will come together, the people said.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has begun talks with banks and investors to raise US$40bil to buy chips from Nvidia Corp, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, though that deal isn’t expected to close until 2027.
Last week, banks involved in the massive Broadcom-backed debt package that will benefit Anthropic began sending out syndication letters for a US$42bil Class A senior-secured tranche.
Blackstone Inc is leading an US$18bil tranche of Class B junior debt, committing US$9bil from various funds, it was reported.
The companies are seeking the deals in the face of soaring costs to outfit data centres. The AI building frenzy, meant to support a proliferation of software and services, has prompted tech giants to seek new forms of financing.
Representatives for Broadcom, OpenAI and Blackstone declined to comment.
Broadcom had already said in June that it had established a platform, with Apollo Global Management Inc and Blackstone as anchor investors, to help finance more than 20 gigawatts in computing capacity for AI developers, including Anthropic and OpenAI through 2028.
Fulfilling that agreement will require hundreds of billions of dollars.
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, unveiled its custom Jalapeno chip alongside Broadcom chief executive officer Hock Tan in June.
The first batch of these so-called accelerators, which run AI tasks, will go into use later this year, with wider deployment in 2027.
Measured by energy use, a benchmark of data centre capacity, Broadcom expects to provide OpenAI with five gigawatts’ worth of the chips in 2028. Tan also sees the AI lab becoming Broadcom’s second-biggest custom chip client.
Anthropic, meanwhile, will become the largest customer for that business in 2027, Tan said in September. Broadcom will send five gigawatts’ worth of the chips to Anthropic next year and a further 10 gigawatts the following year.
Earlier in August, Broadcom held talks with a group of lenders to raise more than US$60bil in debt for an AI chip financing deal that will benefit Anthropic and other companies.
In separate discussions, Oracle is talking to Apollo Global Management Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc to line up money for its chip purchases, according to the Journal. — Bloomberg
