Anthropic Plans to Expand Revolving Credit Line to Over $10 Billion Ahead of IPO

TradingKey - Anthropic is reportedly planning to expand its revolving credit facility to over $10 billion to prepare more sufficient liquidity for a potential initial public offering (IPO). People familiar with the matter said the company's original financing target was about $10 billion, but multiple banks hope to secure more prominent IPO underwriting roles by increasing their commitment amounts.

It is reported that Anthropic has asked the most actively participating banks to provide loan commitments of about $1.25 billion, second-tier banks about $1 billion, and other participants $750 million or less. Revolving credit typically serves as a backup liquidity tool for enterprises, while the commitment size and ranking in syndicated loans are often related to fee arrangements and role assignments in subsequent major capital market transactions.

This playbook has established market precedents; SpaceX expanded its revolving credit significantly from $1.5 billion to $5 billion just a month before its IPO, with the ultimate underwriting syndicate highly overlapping with the credit participating banks. For companies, enlarging credit lines before listing can supplement working capital and optimize the balance sheet while locking in core investment banks in advance to safeguard IPO valuation and smooth issuance.

If finalized, the financing will be significantly higher than the $2.5 billion, five-year revolving credit facility Anthropic obtained last year. Participating banks at that time included Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada, and MUFG. Anthropic is currently working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan to advance its IPO, which could land in the capital markets as early as this autumn, though the timing, offering size, and valuation have not been finalized.

Meanwhile, Anthropic continues to step up its investments in AI infrastructure. Media reports previously indicated that several banks are arranging about $15 billion in debt financing for its Texas data center project, including $14 billion in bridge loans and revolving credit facilities backed by Google. This project loan is not the same financing arrangement as Anthropic's own proposed expansion of its revolving credit.

The core foundation supporting this capital operation is explosive growth in fundamentals. Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate reportedly reached $65 billion as of late July, up sevenfold from a year earlier. This implies that Anthropic has transitioned from a cash-burning startup into a mature stage of scaled profitability, sufficient to support a high-valuation blockbuster IPO.

Viewed from a broader industry perspective, this is an epitome of the capital market recovery driven by the AI cycle. This year, U.S. stock IPO proceeds returned to a high of $257 billion, marking the best performance since 2021, with leading AI companies standing as the absolute mainstay of the listing wave.

The pace of industry peers also confirms this trend. OpenAI similarly expanded its credit framework during the same period by bringing in Bank of America, bringing its accessible capital to over $5 billion. As the two leading large-model developers accelerate commercialization while building up ample capital reserves, competition in the AI space is entering a new stage of dual contention between fundamentals and financial strength.