Anthropic is targeting a valuation of up to $1.4tn in its imminent initial public offering, according to a US regulatory filing on Tuesday, a significant reduction from the $2tn that had been widely anticipated before investor sentiment on artificial intelligence cooled. The Guardian reported. The California-based developer of the Claude chatbot aims to raise up to $64.4bn by selling 825 million shares priced at up to $78 each, with an additional $26bn coming from a private placement with cornerstone investors including Alphabet and Nvidia. If demand proves strong, a greenshoe offering could add another $9.7bn, bringing total capital raised to approximately $100bn at the top end of the price range.
The shift to a lower valuation reflects growing investor scepticism about the durability of the AI boom, particularly surrounding the financial sustainability of massive spending on AI infrastructure. Investor concerns crystallised after last week's US midterm elections, which produced victories for datacentre opponents. Brian Hopkins, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, said the election results gave investors an excuse to correct valuations downward. '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.' The reduction also comes as a Chinese spying scandal involving Nvidia, a cornerstone company for AI investors, threatens to overshadow the industry.
Anthropic's projected financial obligations underscore the scale of its compute spending challenge. According to its prospectus, the company has compute purchase commitments and lease agreements exceeding $70bn over the next 12 months, with over $450bn committed by 2030 and a further $450bn by 2045. The company's annual revenue stood at $81bn as of 31 October, up $10bn from September. Dario Amodei, Anthropic's chief executive, previously explained the stakes of this spending trajectory, telling podcaster Dwarkesh Patel that bankruptcy would be inevitable if revenue could not keep pace with compute purchases. Goldman Sachs, which is leading the float alongside Morgan Stanley, is forecasting Anthropic will generate annual revenues of $600bn by 2030, according to the Financial Times.
Anthropic's IPO will be the largest capital raise in a stock market flotation, exceeding SpaceX's $75bn raise when it joined the public markets with a $1.78tn valuation. Trading in Anthropic shares is expected to begin next week. For US investors, the lower valuation means reduced ownership dilution at entry but signals the market's increased scepticism about whether AI companies can generate returns that justify the enormous computing infrastructure costs they are committing to.