Google guarantees billions in AI data center lease payments for Anthropic TPU chip deals
Google $GOOGL is guaranteeing billions in lease payments on AI data centers it doesn't own, to keep Anthropic on Google TPU chips instead of Nvidia GPUs. Alphabet's SEC filings show these credit-derivative backstops for third-party data centers jumped from $28.4B in Q1 2026 to $4
Alphabet's $GOOGL relationship with Anthropic has moved well past the up-to-$40-billion equity stake it disclosed earlier this year. In June, Apollo Global Management $APO and Blackstone $BX closed a $35 billion debt package covering Google TPU access at five US data centers, with Google guaranteeing the lease payments if Anthropic can't cover them. One of those sites is a $3.2 billion facility in New York that Google itself is funding and stocking with TPUs for Anthropic to lease long-term. Alphabet's own SEC filings show how fast this exposure is growing: credit-derivative backstops tied to third-party data centers rose from $28.4 billion in the company's Q1 2026 filing to $43.8 billion in its Q2 2026 filing, alongside separate financial guarantees for the same category. The structure mirrors how Nvidia built its data-center dominance, financing and leasing infrastructure rather than only selling chips, except here Google is carrying the default risk directly on its own balance sheet rather than a customer's. That leaves Google in an unusual position. Gemini competes directly with Claude for enterprise AI customers, yet Google is simultaneously Anthropic's chip supplier, one of its largest outside investors, and now the financial backstop for its data-center debt. Anthropic closed a $65 billion funding round in May at a $965 billion valuation and has confidentially filed for a US IPO, meaning the scale of Google's guarantees will draw more scrutiny once Anthropic's own books become public.