First SpaceX, now Anthropic. I wonder what happened the last time the big rating agencies gave massive amounts of sketchy debt investment-grade ratings to avoid alienating their customers?
Bonuses (owed under preexisting agreements) were an unfortunate necessity. The USG effectively nationalized AIG because it was determined to be too systemically important to be allowed to chaotically fail. So, the new owners needed to retain the employees necessary to continue its operations. To do so, they had to honor employee compensation agreements.
This turned out to be a wise move as the American taxpayer ended up turning a profit on the AIG bailout.
And it wasn’t as though the bonuses were uncontroversial. They were possible bc of loopholes in the bailout legislation. But the government was furious and, alongside public outrage, pressured the executives to give the back bonuses. The house of representatives even passed a bill to tax the bonuses at 90%. Many did voluntarily give them back.
At that point, compensation agreements with a previously solvent employer are... negotiable.
There's no "had to" in that scenario.
The government wanted to retain the people who knew how to run the thing. Those people wanted the most money they could get.
The deal could have been whatever the two of them struck -- and the public anger was/is that historically the government hasn't bargained very hard against the leadership of companies in that scenario.
If your company can afford bonuses after getting bailed out, then you never needed to be bailed out.
Bankruptcy court would almost never allow bonuses to be paid out during any sort of BK.
And, once again, the taxpayer turned a tidy profit on the bailouts.
"The rating action, which has not previously been reported, shows Anthropic is close to achieving the investment-grade status that would allow the start-up to lower its borrowing costs and tap a wider pool of institutional investors including life insurance companies and pension funds.
Bankers for Anthropic and rival OpenAI have lobbied the largest rating agencies to grant the AI labs investment-grade ratings once they go public."
It is not like Anthropic was once this stable investment grade company that is now shopping around because the debt is being downgraded.
The headline is just click bait.
"The rating action, which has not previously been reported, shows Anthropic is close to achieving the investment-grade status that would allow the start-up to lower its borrowing costs and tap a wider pool of institutional investors including life insurance companies and pension funds.
Bankers for Anthropic and rival OpenAI have lobbied the largest rating agencies to grant the AI labs investment-grade ratings once they go public."