Bankers steering OpenAI and Anthropic toward stock-market listings are pushing for both companies to secure investment-grade credit ratings shortly after going public, according to the Financial Times. Higher ratings would provide broader access to corporate bond investors, lower borrowing costs, and offer alternative funding sources for expensive infrastructure without requiring continuous stock issuances.
Institutional Money and the AI Boom
Investment-grade classifications are vital because large institutional fixed-income investors, such as insurance companies and pension funds, maintain strict portfolio limits on lower-rated debt. Securing these ratings significantly opens up the market and lowers financing costs as both artificial intelligence laboratories approach their initial public offerings.
This push highlights a broader shift in how the AI boom is financed. A Bank for International Settlements report published in January noted that foreseeable AI investment needs have outgrown what can be financed solely through cash flow, leading companies to turn toward debt and private credit markets.
Massive Capital Expenditure Forecasts
The scale of the AI race involves substantial capital requirements across multiple institutional projections:
- Goldman Sachs Research: Predicts global AI investments will exceed $1 trillion by 2026, with $581 billion in the U.S. alone. Economist Joseph Briggs estimates global investments since 2022 will surpass $1.8 trillion by the end of 2026.
- LSEG: Estimates that the five largest U.S. hyperscalers will spend roughly $720 billion in total capital in 2026.
- PwC: Estimates total capital expenditures on global data centers through 2050 will reach $31.6 trillion, starting at $800 billion annually in 2026 and peaking at $1.8 trillion by 2050 due to equipment replacements every four to six years.
Access to cheap, repeated borrowing allows companies to finance more computing power through debt rather than share dilution, potentially widening the gap between frontier firms and smaller competitors.
Rating Agency Concerns
Credit rating agencies have raised cautionary flags regarding the rapid buildout. In a September 3 report titled “Credit Outlook for Hyperscalers: A Temperature Check,” S&P Global Ratings highlighted that capital expenditures are growing faster than originally anticipated, financing structures are becoming more complicated and less transparent, and returns on borrowing could take years to materialize.
S&P estimates that the six largest U.S. hyperscalers will spend more than $7 trillion on data centers and AI-related capex between 2025 and 2030. This presents a core challenge: businesses are acquiring financing today against productivity gains and revenues that remain unproven.
Private-market tracker estimates from DeFiLlama placed Anthropic at approximately $1.38 trillion and OpenAI at roughly $900 billion. If either firm pairs a major IPO with investment-grade credit, it will test public market appetite for funding frontier AI through both equity and large-scale debt.
