Anthropic Seeks Up to $1.4 Trillion Valuation in Blockbuster IPO, Pricing Shares at $70 to $78

NEW YORK — Anthropic will offer 825 million shares at $70 to $78 each in its initial public offering, an updated filing showed on Tuesday, Nov. 10. At the top of the range, the maker of the Claude AI models could be worth up to $1.405 trillion on a fully diluted basis, about 46% above the $965 billion set in a May funding round (TBR calculation).^[1]

Related: Anthropic Revenue Soars 12-Fold to $17 Billion as Rush for Compute Erases Its Operating Profit.

The terms

The company has filed to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ANT” and could net up to $64.35 billion. AMD, Broadcom, Google, Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor have agreed to buy another $26 billion of stock in a private placement at the IPO price, for a possible total of about $90.35 billion (TBR calculation).^[1]

CNBC, citing people familiar with the details, reported that Anthropic plans to price on Nov. 18 and begin trading on Nov. 19, with about 20% of shares going to retail investors. Those people also told CNBC that the order book is already covered across the range.^[1]

Estimates of the value below the top of the range differ. CNN put the value at the midpoint at roughly $1.1 trillion. Scaling CNBC’s fully diluted figure to the $74 midpoint gives about $1.33 trillion (TBR calculation).^[2]

A lower target than investors once floated

Anthropic had been looking toward a $2 trillion valuation until recently, CNBC reported. Some institutional investors pushed for less than the $1.5 trillion discussed as recently as last week, The Wall Street Journal reported.^[1][3] The listing would come about five months after SpaceX raised a record $85.7 billion.^[1] The public offering alone would fall short of that, and only the private placement carries the combined total past it.^[4]

What the filing shows

Revenue for the nine months through Sept. 30 reached $33.24 billion, up roughly 1,200% from a year earlier. Anthropic reported a $104 billion net loss for the period, most of it from changes in the fair value of convertible notes and derivative liabilities. Run-rate revenue was about $81 billion at the end of October.^[1]

The filing’s founders’ letter promises to “bring forth an age of miracles.”^[1] Its risk section is more cautious. “We do not expect our revenue will continue to grow at comparable rates,” the company said.^[2]

The risks critics point to

Anthropic has had only one quarter of operating profit and has committed to nearly $900 billion of spending on computing power and data centers over the next few years. Five customers, some of them competitors, made up a quarter of sales this year.^[2]

Its staggered lock-up lets some non-founder insiders sell 10% of their holdings on the first day, and its seven founders hold a majority of shareholder votes.^[2] David Trainer, CEO of New Constructs, told CNN the payout to insiders is a misallocation of capital. Paul Marino of Themes ETFs told CNN the customer concentration gives him some concern but that he believes AI is the future.^[2]

The offering arrives after last week’s midterm elections, in which several statewide ballot measures could slow the AI buildout, and amid investor doubts about AI spending.^[1] Rival OpenAI was reportedly valued at $1.25 trillion last week.^[3]

What happens next

Executives now begin pitching the offering to investors. The final price will be set after that roadshow, and the range is not a guarantee.^[4] More is on our Artificial Intelligence page, including Monday’s new Claude models.

Disclosure: The Boston Report uses AI tools, including Anthropic’s Claude, to produce articles.

Sources

1. CNBC: Anthropic sets price range of $70 to $78 in upcoming IPO
2. CNN: We’ve never seen anything like the Anthropic IPO
3. TechCrunch: Anthropic reportedly plans to move forward with IPO plans
4. Trending Topics: Anthropic IPO: $64 Billion From the Market, $26 Billion From Nvidia and Google

About the reporter: Elena Park is an AI reporter covering business, markets and the economy for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.