Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude family of models, is expected to receive a speculative-grade credit rating from major rating agencies once it completes its initial public offering, according to a report from the Financial Times.

The report cites communications from Blackstone, the investment giant that serves as the anchor investor in a recently structured $63 billion financing arrangement tied to Anthropic's chip infrastructure. Blackstone reportedly informed participants in that deal that it now anticipates the AI lab will receive what is commonly referred to as a "high" junk rating following its IPO.

The development marks a notable shift in expectations. The Financial Times points out that Blackstone had previously indicated the opposite - that Anthropic would achieve an investment-grade credit rating, which signals lower risk to lenders, before the end of 2026. That earlier outlook has now been revised downward.

A Downgraded Outlook

Under the revised forecast, Blackstone now expects Anthropic to land in the double-B range upon going public. Within the credit rating framework used by agencies such as Moody's and S&P Global Ratings, a double-B designation sits at the upper tier of the speculative, or junk, category. While it represents the least risky tier within that bracket, it still falls below investment grade.

Both Anthropic and Blackstone declined to respond to requests for comment on the matter.

It is worth noting that Blackstone's projection is a forward-looking estimate, not a confirmed outcome from any rating agency. Nonetheless, the implications are significant. A junk credit rating, even at the higher end of the spectrum, typically translates into higher borrowing costs and reduced access to certain pools of institutional capital. For a company like Anthropic, which has been spending aggressively to secure computing infrastructure and expand its operations, those constraints could meaningfully affect its financial flexibility going forward.

Heavy Spending Has Raised Eyebrows

Over the past year, Anthropic has entered into a series of large-scale agreements to secure the compute capacity needed to train and run its AI systems. The scale of that spending has drawn scrutiny from investors, with some expressing concern about the company's long-term path to profitability and its ability to sustain such capital-intensive operations.

The chip financing deal anchored by Blackstone was itself a reflection of how much Anthropic has come to rely on external capital to fund its infrastructure ambitions. That arrangement, valued at $63 billion, was structured specifically to support the company's hardware needs - a sign of how central compute access has become to its competitive strategy in the AI sector.

IPO Filing Sparks Industry Speculation

Anthropic officially submitted its IPO filing earlier this week, setting in motion a broader conversation about what the company's public market debut could mean for the artificial intelligence industry at large. The listing is expected to be one of the more closely watched technology offerings in recent memory, given Anthropic's position as one of the leading independent AI research companies and its rivalry with OpenAI and other frontier model developers.

The prospect of a junk credit rating adds a layer of financial complexity to that narrative. While a double-B rating does not signal imminent financial distress, it does indicate that rating agencies view the company's debt obligations as carrying a meaningful degree of risk - a characterization that could influence how institutional investors approach the IPO and any subsequent debt offerings.

For Anthropic, the path to a public listing comes at a moment when the broader AI sector is under increasing pressure to demonstrate that its enormous capital outlays can eventually translate into sustainable, profitable businesses. The credit rating question is just one dimension of that broader scrutiny, but it is one that will likely follow the company closely as it navigates its transition from a privately funded research lab to a publicly traded enterprise.