Broadcom said in an 8-K filed Oct. 27 that it is backing a new special purpose vehicle. The vehicle buys AI racks built on Broadcom-designed chips and leases them to one customer. Broadcom's support is a residual value guarantee. If the racks sell for less than 72.5% of what is still owed on the leases, Broadcom covers the gap. The most it could owe is about $43 billion, counted without discounting and once the racks are deployed. Broadcom calls that outcome "a contingent liability the Company believes has a low probability of occurring." The filing does not name the customer or say when the leases end. Reuters reports that Bank of America, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Blackstone are lining up $63 billion for the deal, that the lessee is Anthropic, and that deliveries start in 2027.
My read: look at the floor, not the headline number. The $43 billion is a ceiling. It grows as racks are delivered and shrinks as the customer pays down the leases. Broadcom pays only if resale value falls below 72.5% of the balance, so the guarantee is a bet on how fast custom AI racks lose value. Lenders get comfort because the chip maker holds part of that risk. The filing describes the support as residual value, which is about what the racks sell for, not about whether the customer keeps paying. If the customer defaults, Broadcom could take over the lease, resell the racks to the seller at a fixed price under certain conditions, or arrange a sale.
If you buy compute that runs on leased hardware, ask three things. Who owns the racks? Who pays the gap if they resell low? What happens to your capacity if the lessee misses payments? The same lease-versus-loan question runs through our look at SpaceX's $40 billion chip lease and the Anthropic commitments that cannot be canceled.