Google Guarantees Anthropic Data Center Financing... AI "Circular Financing" Expands

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Google is providing a financial guarantee for the construction of a data center in Texas, United States, which will be used by the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, and will also supply the AI semiconductors it jointly designed with Broadcom to Anthropic. Analysts note that so-called "circular financing"—in which large-scale infrastructure investments by loss-making AI companies are underpinned by the creditworthiness of big tech and semiconductor firms—is expanding once again.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on July 30 (local time), Nexus Data Centers, the developer collaborating with Anthropic, is currently negotiating a loan of approximately $15 billion to build a large-scale data center campus and a power plant in Hubbard, Texas.

The financial structure will comprise both a bridge loan and a revolving credit facility, with a bank consortium led by Morgan Stanley lending funds to Nexus. Reports suggest that the deal could be announced as early as today.

The Hubbard campus will include a natural gas power plant that can generate up to 1.6 gigawatts (GW) of electricity—an amount equivalent to or greater than the capacity of a nuclear power plant. Depending on future data center demand, the generation capacity could exceed 1.6 GW.

Google has provided a guarantee valued in the billions of dollars, agreeing to cover rent and power purchase payments on behalf of Anthropic if Anthropic becomes unable to meet those obligations. In exchange for this guarantee, Google is reportedly set to secure approximately a 20% stake in the data center and power plant project. The guarantee covers four data center lease agreements that Anthropic has signed, as well as related power purchase agreements.

The WSJ reported that while Google's guarantee was limited to the minimum level requested by the banks, Google's willingness to take on a portion of Anthropic's default risk significantly increased the likelihood of securing financing.

Anthropic is planning to install tensor processing units (TPUs)—AI semiconductors co-designed by Google and Broadcom—at the data center. The funds for purchasing these TPUs will be provided through supplier financing, based on a separate agreement between Anthropic and Broadcom.

Ultimately, Google is guaranteeing the financing for the data center, Broadcom is supporting the semiconductor procurement costs, and Anthropic will be using the infrastructure and semiconductors provided by these companies. This is a structure in which companies that profit from supplying AI infrastructure are even backing the financing options for the customers who will purchase that infrastructure.

Anthropic is shifting its strategy from merely leasing servers from cloud providers to directly becoming a data center lessee. The company has signed over ten preliminary lease agreements with U.S. developers and aims to secure at least 10 GW of data center capacity in the coming years.

The WSJ reported that the structure—where big tech companies that supply AI infrastructure also guarantee the data center rental and power costs of their AI startup clients—is spreading rapidly.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.