Anthropic Targets Valuation $1.4tn in Wall Street IPO
Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, is seeking a valuation of up to $1.4tn in its Wall Street flotation, below the $2tn widely expected earlier. A US filing sets out a $64.4bn share sale, and an analyst blames investor nerves after the midterm elections.
Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, is seeking a valuation of up to $1.4tn (£1.05tn) in its imminent stock market flotation. That is short of the $2tn that had been expected before investors began to question how long the AI boom can last.
The company had been widely reported to be targeting a $2tn initial public offering (IPO) on Wall Street. A US regulatory filing on Tuesday, November 10, shows it has set its sights lower.
What the filing says
Anthropic aims to raise up to $64.4bn by selling 825m shares, priced at up to $78 a share. That would give the California-based company a valuation of up to $1.4tn.
It will raise a further $26bn through a separate private placement with cornerstone investors. They include Google's parent company, Alphabet, and the chipmaker Nvidia.
Trading in Anthropic shares could start as soon as next week.
The updated filing also states that Anthropic's annual revenue is now running at $81bn as of October 31. That is up $10bn from the previous month.
Why the target fell
Investor jitters over the AI boom sharpened last week, when the US midterm elections produced victories for datacentre opponents. That added to existing worries about how quickly, or whether at all, companies can earn a return on their spending on AI infrastructure.
Brian Hopkins, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, said the vote gave investors a chance to correct valuations they were already uneasy about. Those concerns centered on the financial sustainability of the AI build-out, he said.
"The market needed an excuse to correct itself a little bit in terms of valuations," Hopkins said. "The US election spook is what has caused it." As a result, he added, Anthropic's valuation has been lowered from the anticipated $2tn.
Record listings and a Nvidia scandal
The largest stock market listing to date is Elon Musk's SpaceX, which joined the US market with a valuation of $1.78tn. The company, whose assets include Musk's rocket launch business and the X social media platform, is now worth just under $2tn.
A Chinese spying scandal enveloping Nvidia, a cornerstone company for AI investors, also threatens to overshadow the industry. It has not affected share prices so far, other than Nvidia's own.
