Anthropic Eyes $1.4 Trillion IPO in Biggest Test of AI BoomTechnology

At the top of that price range, Anthropic would be worth about $1.4 trillion on a fully diluted basis, a figure that includes securities such as stock options and restricted stock. Without those securities, its market value would be about $1 trillion. The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq on 19 November under the ticker symbol ANT.

Alongside the share sale, Anthropic plans to raise a further $26 billion through a separate private placement with cornerstone investors including Google, the chipmaker Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. The two deals together could bring in as much as $90.4 billion, making it one of the largest capital raisings in stock market history.

The valuation is lower than some early expectations. Investors had at one stage discussed a figure as high as $2 trillion, but hopes have cooled as markets question the enormous cost of building AI systems and the time it will take for the spending to pay off. Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, described the pricing as essentially a reassessment of the company’s value in a more challenging environment for AI.

The road to the listing has not been smooth. Hours before the updated prospectus was filed, an earlier set of terms was briefly circulated to investment banks late on Monday and then withdrawn, according to emails seen by Reuters. Those preliminary terms had pointed to about 867 million shares at up to $80 each, which could have raised as much as $69.3 billion. The final filing set a lower price range and smaller proceeds.

Anthropic’s own numbers show why investors are still paying attention. The company’s run-rate revenue stood at roughly $81 billion at the end of October, up $10 billion in a single month, according to the filing. It was last valued at $965 billion in a private funding round. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are leading the offering as underwriters.

Investors will also be watching what the listing says about rival OpenAI, which is seeking to raise $30 billion in what is expected to be its final private funding round before a possible listing early next year. OpenAI recently secured $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation, below the $1.5 trillion it had initially sought.

The prospectus does not hide the risks. Anthropic warns that its models have behaved in unintended or misaligned ways in the past and could do so again, including by taking harmful actions nobody directed. It also cautions that advances in AI could outpace its ability to put adequate safety measures in place, and that competitors could gain an edge by developing models faster. Whether the market shares its excitement at a $1.4 trillion price will become clear when trading begins.