Apollo President Jim Zelter on leading $35 billion financing on Broadcom

Summary

Apollo President Jim Zelter explains the firm’s role leading a $35 billion financing package for Broadcom’s AI platform to support Anthropic’s compute expansion. He argues that this deal structure reflects a fundamental shift in capital markets where public, private, and bank capital are combined, and that a wave of similarly large-scale transactions is coming across AI and other infrastructure sectors. Apollo’s permanent capital from its insurance balance sheet (Athene) gives it a distinct advantage to participate in this growing trend.

• Apollo led a $35 billion financing for Broadcom/Google TPU chips to be delivered to Anthropic over several years.
• The deal was structured with a senior bank tranche, an Apollo piece over 4-5 years, and residual risk held by Anthropic.
• Zelter expects the financing model to be replicated as hyperscaler capex drives enormous chip and compute demand.
• AI compute demand from consumers and enterprises is surging, and pre-IPO AI firms lack traditional debt access, creating a gap for private credit.
• Capital markets have evolved from an either/or (debt/equity/banks) model to an integrated ‘and’ model combining public, private, and bank capital.
• Apollo’s long-dated insurance liabilities (Athene) provide a permanent capital base that is uniquely suited to fund these long-cycle mega deals.
• Zelter highlights a shift toward investment-grade rated disruptors, contrasting with the non-investment grade financing focus of past decades.