Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot, will price its shares at between $70 and $78 each when it lists on New York's Nasdaq stock exchange later this month, valuing the loss-making firm at between $1.1 trillion and $1.3 trillion. The share sale is expected to raise up to $64 billion. Although the valuation is substantial, it falls short of the $2 trillion some of the company's backers predicted in the summer, according to the Financial Times.
The listing comes at a turbulent time for major technology firms. Following last week's US midterm elections, the Nasdaq index fell sharply amid concerns that a Democrat-led Congress could slow artificial intelligence development and investment in data centres. There are also broader worries across the sector about whether the billions of dollars being poured into AI will ultimately generate returns.
Despite these headwinds, Fiona Cincotta, a senior market analyst at City Index, described Anthropic's fundraising target as "fairly bullish" given the current volatility and concerns about AI. She told Reuters that the company's confidence in raising such a sum demonstrates it remains optimistic about AI prospects and believes demand will materialise.
Anthropic, which will trade under the symbol ANT from 19 November, is the first fully AI-focused company to float publicly, making it a significant test case for how investors will value pure-play artificial intelligence businesses. For comparison, SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence company, listed its shares in June and was valued at nearly $1.8 trillion.
The company's financial performance has accelerated sharply. In its most recent results covering the six months to the end of June, Anthropic's revenues jumped to $16.2 billion from $1.1 billion in the equivalent period the previous year. The company was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei along with five others, all former employees of OpenAI, the rival firm behind ChatGPT. Anthropic announced its intention to float in June, with OpenAI following suit and expected to list early next year.
The company has acknowledged that advanced AI systems "could, if not developed, deployed, and operated with appropriate safeguards, oversight, and security measures, pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity". Staff at both Anthropic and OpenAI have warned that AI technology is being developed without adequate protection against potential future harms. Anthropic has warned investors that its future depends largely on developing the most advanced AI models, and that failure to do so could harm the business. For UK investors, this valuation suggests the market remains willing to deploy substantial capital into AI companies despite current uncertainty, though the pricing below summer expectations may signal more cautious sentiment.