Anthropic Expected to Get High Junk Credit Rating After IPO, FT Says

Blackstone now expects Anthropic to receive a high "junk" credit rating from ratings agencies once the AI lab completes its initial public offering, reversing an earlier forecast that had the Claude maker reaching investment-grade status before 2027, according to a Financial Times report cited by TechCrunch.

Blackstone is the anchor investor in a $63 billion deal to finance Anthropic's chip purchases, TechCrunch reports, and it told investors in that deal that it now anticipates a double-B range rating for the company — the top tier of speculative, or "junk," grade. Anthropic and Blackstone both declined to comment when TechCrunch reached out.

What did Blackstone predict before, and what changed?

The shift is the headline fact: Blackstone had previously told investors Anthropic would land an investment-grade rating — the category signaling low risk to lenders — before 2027, per the FT reporting relayed by TechCrunch. The firm has now revised that call to a high junk rating in the double-B range instead. TechCrunch's report does not detail what specifically drove the revision, and neither Anthropic nor Blackstone has offered an on-record explanation.

Why does a junk rating matter for Anthropic's fundraising?

A high junk rating sits one tier below investment grade on the scale ratings agencies use to signal risk to lenders. TechCrunch notes that such a rating would make it "more difficult and costlier" for Anthropic to raise the money needed to sustain what the outlet describes as the company's "massive spending" on compute. Investment-grade companies typically borrow at lower interest rates because agencies judge them less likely to default; a junk designation, even a high one, pushes borrowing costs up and can narrow the pool of institutional buyers willing to hold the debt.

How big is Anthropic's compute spending commitment?

The $63 billion financing deal tied to Blackstone's investment is earmarked specifically for chip purchases, according to TechCrunch. The outlet reports that Anthropic has spent the past 12 months signing large compute-power agreements, a pace of spending TechCrunch says has "worried investors." The IPO filing, which Anthropic submitted earlier this week per the same report, triggered what TechCrunch calls a wave of speculation over how the offering will ripple through the broader AI industry.

What happens next in the IPO process?

Anthropic's formal IPO filing was lodged earlier in the week of October 26, 2026, TechCrunch reports, setting up the sequence in which credit agencies would issue their post-offering ratings. The TechCrunch item, published at 2:52 p.m. PDT on October 30, 2026, frames Blackstone's revised junk-rating forecast as a prediction tied to that filing rather than a confirmed agency decision — the actual ratings from firms such as Moody's or S&P are not yet in hand, based on the available reporting.

Anthropic Rating Outlook By The Numbers

• $63 billion — size of the Blackstone-anchored financing deal tied to Anthropic's chip purchases, per TechCrunch.
• Double-B range — the junk-rating tier Blackstone now expects Anthropic to receive after its IPO, the top band of speculative grade, according to the FT reporting cited by TechCrunch.
• Pre-2027 — the timeframe in which Blackstone had earlier told investors Anthropic would reach investment-grade status, a forecast TechCrunch says has now been reversed.

Is this a confirmed rating or just a forecast?

It is a forecast, not an agency determination. TechCrunch is explicit on this point, writing that "Blackstone's forecast is just a prediction." The actual grade will come from independent credit rating agencies after the IPO closes, and those agencies have not been quoted or cited directly in the reporting reviewed here. Both companies named in the deal — Anthropic and Blackstone — declined TechCrunch's request for comment, leaving the reversal itself, and not an explanation for it, as the confirmed fact of the story.

For now, the data point investors are weighing is the gap between the two Blackstone forecasts: investment-grade before 2027 versus a double-B junk rating now, both tied to the same $63 billion chip-financing arrangement. That gap, more than any single number, is what TechCrunch's sourcing frames as the material change heading into Anthropic's public offering.