Anthropic may have to accept a lower valuation than the $1.5 trillion it had been targeting for its stock market debut, after a sharp sell-off in technology stocks spooked key investors, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Three major investors planning to take part in the offering told the Journal the valuation would likely need to be reduced, with one saying it could end up closer to $1 trillion. The artificial intelligence company had been aiming to hold its initial public offering in the week of November 16 and raise up to $100 billion, which would make it the largest IPO on record. One investor suggested the company could instead seek around $80 billion, and another raised the possibility that the listing could be postponed.
The pushback follows a brutal session for AI stocks. Companies in the Nasdaq Composite lost a combined $2.5 trillion in market value on Thursday, November 5, according to the Journal, as investors questioned the huge sums being poured into artificial intelligence infrastructure. Reuters separately reported that potential investors were questioning whether Anthropic could proceed with its planned roadshow in the week beginning November 9. Anthropic declined to comment.
Valuation expectations had already been retreating before Thursday's sell-off. Earlier in the week, institutional investors had signaled that roughly $1.5 trillion to $1.6 trillion was a level they could support, below the approximately $2 trillion figures discussed in recent months, according to Business Standard. The company had announced its IPO on October 26, identifying ANT as its proposed symbol on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, with the price range and share count still undetermined.
The company's latest filing shows why investors are torn. Revenue grew from $5.6 billion in the first quarter to $11.6 billion in the second and $17 billion in the third, but the filing left the October revenue figure blank. Anthropic has committed approximately $895 billion to computing infrastructure, and it held $146.6 billion in cash as of September 30. Company executives and advisers are expected to meet in the coming days to review the IPO plans, with a debut before the November 26 Thanksgiving holiday still the stated ambition — but no final price, size or date has been set.
