Anthropic expected to receive high 'junk' rating from credit agencies following IPO, FT report says

Why it matters

Blackstone, the anchor investor in a major financing deal backing Anthropic's chips, has told investors it expects the AI lab to receive a high "junk" credit rating after its initial public offering, according to the Financial Times. This reverses Blackstone's earlier position that Anthropic would achieve investment-grade status, which signals low lending risk, before a certain future date. The firm now anticipates a double B rating, the strongest tier within speculative grade. Both Anthropic and Blackstone declined to comment when contacted by TechCrunch. While only a forecast, the shift matters because a junk rating would make borrowing harder and more expensive for Anthropic, which has committed to enormous spending on compute power over the past year, a pattern that has unsettled investors. The news comes just after Anthropic formally filed to go public, an event that has already triggered broad speculation about how the offering will shape the wider AI industry and its financing environment.