Bankers for OpenAI and Anthropic — both of which are barreling towards IPOs — are reportedly pressing for the AI giants to quickly win investment-grade credit ratings, underlining the huge and growing role of debt in the tech infrastructure buildout.
The AI labs’ bankers are keen to get access to the mammoth corporate bond market, the Financial Times reported, but their efforts come as concern grows over Big Tech’s giant borrowing spree. “Every time we take a deep dive into this sector,” analysts at S&P Global Ratings wrote last week, “we find that capex is rising faster than we anticipated, financings are becoming more complicated and less transparent, and that returns on investment will take years to realize.”