Blackstone expects Anthropic to receive a speculative-grade credit rating

Blackstone now expects Anthropic to receive a speculative-grade credit rating after its initial public offering, reversing an earlier view, according to a Financial Times report that TechCrunch summarized on October 30, 2026. The FT says Blackstone told investors in a recent $63 billion deal to finance Anthropic's chips that it expects the AI lab to receive a "high" junk rating after the IPO. Blackstone is the anchor investor in that financing. Earlier, the FT notes, the firm had said the opposite: that Anthropic would receive an investment-grade rating, which signals low risk to lenders, before 2027.

The specific rating band matters here. TechCrunch, citing the same reporting, says Blackstone now expects a double B range rating, the top tier of speculative or "junk" grade. The earlier forecast had put Anthropic on the investment-grade side of the line.

A rating matters because of what it means for funding. TechCrunch notes that a high junk rating would make it harder and more expensive for Anthropic to raise the money it needs to keep funding its spending, which has been built on large compute deals over the past 12 months. Those deals have worried investors. TechCrunch also calls the Blackstone forecast just a prediction.

The reporting does not name the rating agencies involved or give a timeline for when a rating would be assigned. TechCrunch reported that Anthropic had officially filed to go public earlier that week, but the reporting it cites does not say how the IPO filing and the expected rating are connected beyond the timing.