Anthropic Pre-IPO Revolver Set to Climb Past $10 Billion

Anthropic's revolving credit facility is on track to climb past its roughly $10 billion target, Bloomberg reported, as banks compete for a slot on the Claude maker's coming IPO.

The structure is a tiered auction. Anthropic "has asked the banks most active in arranging the credit facility to commit about $1.25 billion each, with a second tier of active lenders encouraged to offer around $1 billion." Commitments for less active participants could be about $750 million or lower.

Anthropic is currently collaborating with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the offering. The previous $2.5 billion revolver, signed last year, was arranged by a group that included Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Any bank that wants a role on the IPO is being pushed to write a bigger check now.

The mechanism is straightforward. "In syndicated lending, larger commitments generally result in higher fees for banks, and a larger role in the credit facility can also help a bank position itself for a more active role in a subsequent capital markets transaction," the reporting notes. Banks want the IPO ticket. Anthropic wants the balance-sheet backing.

Discussions remain fluid; the company could ultimately hold the facility at its target or below it. Whatever the final figure, it would be roughly four times last year's $2.5 billion line. The credit push lands inside a busy stretch of Anthropic coverage, including its reported $7B deal for Decart, outbidding Nvidia.