Overview
Two major private equity firms, Apollo Global Management Inc. and Blackstone Inc., are reported to be in talks with Broadcom Inc. over a potential financing package of approximately $35 billion to underwrite the chipmaker's development and production of processors aimed at artificial intelligence workloads. Sources characterize the talks as ongoing and say terms remain subject to negotiation and possible change.
Scale and purpose
If completed on the size reported, the financing would rank among the largest private credit transactions ever arranged. Broadcom is said to be seeking funds specifically to support production of chips designed for AI applications, aligning capital plans with the company's recent commercial agreements in the AI ecosystem.
Contracts and partnerships
In a regulatory filing in April, Broadcom disclosed it had entered into a long-term agreement to develop and supply custom tensor processing units - TPUs - for Google. The filing also referenced a separate contract to provide networking and other components for Google's next-generation AI racks through 2031. Broadcom additionally announced an expanded collaboration with Google and Anthropic to provide Anthropic access to an additional 3.5 gigawatts of next-generation TPU-based AI compute capacity beginning in 2027, subject to Anthropic's ongoing commercial performance.
At the time of those announcements, Broadcom stated that the companies involved were in discussions with financial partners to support the deployment of the announced capacity and infrastructure.
Context from comparable financing
The reported Broadcom talks follow large-scale private financings for AI infrastructure in the prior year, including a nearly $30 billion financing arranged last year for Meta Platforms Inc.'s data center facility in Louisiana, provided by Blue Owl Capital Inc. and Pacific Investment Management Co.
Status and caveats
All reported discussions about the roughly $35 billion financing are described as preliminary and negotiable. No definitive agreement has been reported, and parties are said to be continuing talks on terms.