Apollo Global Management NYSE:APO, an alternative asset manager that has expanded into insurance-backed corporate lending, is moving further into territory traditionally dominated by major Wall Street banks. The firm recently arranged a record $35 billion private-credit financing for Broadcom NASDAQ:AVGO, a chipmaker funding artificial intelligence infrastructure, and Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company. Apollo said it was the only lender capable of committing the full $35 billion, allowing the agreement to be completed within weeks. The transaction was structured through Apollo's Atlas SP unit and involved other investors, including Blackstone NYSE:BX, a large alternative asset manager. Apollo designed the financing to keep the debt off Broadcom's balance sheet while maintaining a guarantee from the company, which could help Broadcom and Anthropic finance their AI ambitions without relying entirely on conventional corporate borrowing.
The Broadcom-Anthropic transaction follows a financing structure Apollo developed in 2022 for Intel NASDAQ:INTC, a semiconductor manufacturer that needed billions of dollars for a major factory expansion while seeking to avoid a credit-rating downgrade. Apollo used capital from Athene, its insurance business, and other funds to invest $11.2 billion for a 49% stake in a joint venture controlling an Intel semiconductor facility in Ireland. The structure allowed Intel to treat the cash injection as equity and preserve its investment-grade rating from S&P Global Ratings. Apollo generated a $3 billion gain from the investment within two years, and the deal became a model for further structured corporate financings. The firm has since completed dozens of similar transactions totaling more than $100 billion, involving companies such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, a global brewer, Air France-KLM, an international airline group, BP, an energy company, and Vonovia, Germany's largest residential landlord.
Apollo now oversees more than $1 trillion and originated a record $309 billion of loans in 2025, while Chief Executive Officer Marc Rowan said the firm had a chance of approaching $100 billion of originations in the second quarter. Apollo has also disclosed a pipeline of more than $100 billion for these structured transactions and estimates that as much as $100 trillion may be required in coming decades to support digital infrastructure and global power demand. The company's insurance-backed model may provide an advantage because Athene supplies permanent capital that can support large and complex financings, although Apollo must continue finding highly rated assets to meet the insurer's investment needs. Apollo is also expanding its credit-trading operation after trading $15 billion of private assets through the end of the first quarter, further increasing its competition with banks such as JPMorgan Chase NYSE:JPM, Goldman Sachs NYSE:GS and Citigroup NYSE:C. Investors may view Apollo's growing lending, syndication and trading capabilities as potential sources of fees and expansion, while also considering private-credit liquidity pressures, regulatory concerns and uncertainty over whether the company should be valued primarily as an asset manager, an insurance business or a broader financial institution.