Report: Broadcom agrees to provide Anthropic with up to $42 billion in loans to lease its own chips.

On October 1, a Reuters article titled "Broadcom to Lend Anthropic Up to $42 Billion for Leasing Its Chips" reported that Anthropic disclosed in its IPO prospectus that Broadcom has agreed to provide it with up to $42 billion in loans specifically to finance infrastructure spending. In turn, Anthropic is expected to become Broadcom's largest chip design business customer next year. The scale of this funding is equivalent to about one-third of the total committed amount of Anthropic's five-year TPU lease (125.2 billion). According to the prospectus, Broadcom may designate financing partners, and the aforementioned debt instruments can be converted into Anthropic shares. Anthropic said it does not expect to sell any notes before the IPO is completed. Anthropic also disclosed that in April 2026 it deposited cash into a dedicated restricted account for Broadcom, and additional deposits may be required under certain circumstances. The prospectus also warned that Broadcom's dual role as hardware supplier and financier presents a potential conflict of interest. If a major payment or performance default occurs, it could cause most lease obligations to become immediately due, while also limiting the company's ability to use this $42 billion financing facility to cover the related payments. Broadcom's role: from chip supplier to core financier Broadcom's relationship with Anthropic goes far beyond this. The prospectus shows that their cooperation spans three levelscomputing power supply, equipment leasing, and financingwhich is unique among Anthropic's major partners. By comparison, large partners such as Amazon mainly provide cloud infrastructure and distribution channels for the Claude model. Anthropic is expected to become Broadcom's largest chip design business customer in 2027. Broadcom forecasts that its AI semiconductor revenue will be about $115 billion in fiscal 2027 and further increase to about $230 billion in fiscal 2028. Following Nvidia: using the balance sheet to drive chip sales The market views Broadcom's move as following Nvidia's strategy. Seaport Research analyst Jay Goldberg said: "Nvidia is deploying a large amount of balance sheet resources, and Broadcom has to follow suit." In recent years, Nvidia has used its strong financial strength to provide financing support to customers, thereby driving chip sales. The financing arrangement Broadcom is providing to Anthropic follows the same logic. Wall Street's concern: a concentrated bet on two companies This arrangement has also raised questions among some on Wall Street about the logic of AI investment. Robert Leitao, managing partner at Rothschild & Co., said bluntly: "At present, it feels like a highly concentrated bet on whether two companies can generate enough revenue to support all the financing arrangements." Anthropic's IPO valuation is expected to be as high as $2 trillion. The company explicitly warned in its prospectus that Broadcom simultaneously serving as hardware supplier and financier creates a "potential conflict of interest" that could affect the company's ability to obtain the computing resources it needs. This article is reprinted from "Wall Street Insights," author: Ge Dongjin; GMTEight editor: Zheng Yuyang.