Blackstone reportedly expects Anthropic to receive a high speculative-grade rating, in the double-B range, after a possible IPO, according to a Financial Times report relayed by TechCrunch on October 30, 2026. The reported expectation concerns what rating agencies might assign after a future listing.
What the forecast means
Speculative-grade ratings fall below investment grade. In the scale described by Yahoo Finance’s October 30 account, BBB− is the lowest investment-grade rating, placing the reported double-B range below that threshold. A rating agency would make the formal decision; Blackstone’s reported view is a forecast about a possible later assessment.
An earlier Forbes video, published October 13, attributed a “barely investment grade” assessment of Anthropic to an unnamed AI-powered bond-rating startup. That was a separate startup assessment, made before the later report about Blackstone’s expectation.
Why the outlook matters for financing
A high speculative-grade rating could make future financing more difficult and costly, according to the TechCrunch account. The report placed Blackstone’s forecast in the context of Project North Star, a reported $63 billion chip-financing package. Yahoo Finance’s October 30 account described more than $42 billion in loans backed by Broadcom and a further $18 billion dependent on Anthropic. It also reported that Blackstone funds took about $9 billion of the Anthropic-dependent portion, with returns above 10%.
NeoTeo previously covered Blackstone’s reported role in Anthropic’s proposed TPU financing.
