Apollo's lending hit a record $114 billion last quarter, FT reports
For the chief risk officer of a corporate bank
Apollo Global's lending reportedly reached a record $114 billion last quarter, 50% above its second-quarter level, the Financial Times reported on Nov. 3, according to PYMNTS.1
PYMNTS reported that Apollo's lending hit a record $114 billion in the quarter "thanks to its AI funding efforts" and cited an FT report that Apollo lent to AI companies such as Anthropic and Nvidia; PYMNTS is relaying the FT, and the FT's own figures were not available in the source.1 Apollo arranged complicated deals that collateralize large borrowings against valuable chips, PYMNTS said, citing the report.1
According to the FT, Apollo has lent more than $350 billion in the last 12 months, nearly a third more than the prior year, at levels in line with commercial banks such as HSBC and Citigroup.1
Borrowers named include Nvidia, Anthropic and Elon Musk's SpaceX/xAI; the source did not give individual deal sizes or terms.1
Ares Management CEO Michael Arougheti told investors the firm avoided lending against AI chips because he did "not know how to underwrite the decline in depreciation curves on that type of technology," the FT said.1
The FT also reported that some large commercial banks worry about overexposure to individual Big Tech companies in their loan books and are hesitant to lend more.1
Chip-backed loans are moving to private credit while some banks hold back over concentration in Big Tech names, so banks may face a rival for these borrowers and need a view on how fast chip collateral loses value. Apollo's own chief economist, Torsten Slok, wrote on Oct. 24 that AI has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech, which bears on the demand behind such lending.
Our take. Apollo now lends at Citi's scale against chips whose value Ares's CEO says he cannot underwrite. Banks already fear single-name Big Tech exposure; competing for these deals adds more, secured by an asset that ages like a laptop.
Action. Credit risk: Aggregate exposure to Nvidia, Anthropic and xAI across loans, commitments and counterparties, and set haircuts for chip collateral.
What our records say
Anthropic's Claude sells banks Claude seats and API access directly and through cloud marketplaces, and in 2026 added embedded engineering with Goldman Sachs and FIS, restricted cyber-defence access to its Mythos model, and a services firm co-founded with Goldman Sachs (profile reviewed Oct 22, 2026).1
From our records
- Claude (Anthropic)vendor · banks using it (21) Goldman, JPMorgan, BankUnited · alternatives Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, Gemini Enterprise
- NVIDIAvendor · banks using it (6) BNY, Amex, Capital One · alternatives SambaNova
- HSBC USAbank · latest Ant Digital test: AI agents pay with HSBC tokenised deposits (Oct 2026) · enforcement 1 action since 2016; latest OCC consent order (Apr 2016)
- Citigroupbank · latest Citi names applied-AI and AI-strategy leads (Oct 2026) · vendors Feedzai, BioCatch, Socure · enforcement 8 actions since 2016; latest Federal Reserve civil money penalty, $60.6 million (Jul 2024)