OPENAI AND ANTHROPIC SEEK INVESTMENT-GRADE RATINGS AHEAD OF PLANNED IPOS Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have reportedly held talks with rating agencies on behalf of the two AI labs ahead of their planned IPOs. Investment-grade status would give them access to the roughly $11.7T corporate bond market, lower borrowing costs and broaden the pool of investors able to finance their massive data-center and compute buildouts. It could also materially reduce the burden on their Big Tech partners. NVIDIA currently provides roughly $105B of credit support for an OpenAI data center in Ohio, which can terminate once OpenAI secures a satisfactory credit rating. Oracle is also looking to refinance debt tied to a $300B OpenAI infrastructure buildout, while Google and Broadcom have extended tens of billions in support for Anthropic. The hurdle is significant. Both OpenAI and Anthropic remain unprofitable and free-cash-flow negative, with rating analysts reportedly still viewing them as speculative-grade borrowers. This angle is much stronger because it explains why the ratings matter beyond simply borrowing more cheaply. Source: FT 08-SEP-2026 05:18 AM ET