Anthropic targets $1 trillion valuation with record IPO and placement plans
Anthropic and some of its shareholders are seeking to raise as much as $90.4bn in its hotly anticipated IPO and private placement, in a potentially record-breaking first-time share sale that will test the market’s appetite for AI stocks after a major sell-off last week.
The Claude chatbot maker is seeking as much as $64.4bn (£47.9bn) in its initial public offering with plans to sell approximately 801.4m shares at between $70 to $78 apiece, according to a filing on Tuesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The tech firm’s backers are selling 23.6m shares.
The offering also includes $26bn investment commitments from fellow technology titans, Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, Alphabet, Microsoft, Nvidia and TSMC, which will participate in a private placement alongside the IPO, according to the filing.
At the top of the price range, Anthropic would have a valuation of roughly $1 trillion.
Defying AI jitters
The AI giant’s ambitious target would top SpaceX’s $75bn offering in June, and defy widespread nerves among investors after a selloff in AI related stocks last week wiped roughly $2.5 trillion in value off the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index.
The decline was driven by the results of the US midterms, as investors feared that the Democrat’s sweeping victory would stall the construction of data centres and lead to stricter regulation, driving up costs and limiting development.
Anthropic had previously been expected to seek a valuation of around $1.5 trillion, although some investors have pushed for a lower figure following the market turmoil.
But the company’s sales have surged, with the firm positing third-quarter revenue of nearly $17bn, compared to $1.4bn the prior year. Sales have been pushed higher by new versions of its Mythos and Fable models.
Retracting earlier forms
The $90bn raise follows the company withdrawing pricing details on Tuesday. The Claude developer circulated a securities filing on Monday outlining plans to sell approximately 867 million shares at between $70 and $80 apiece, Reuters reported.
However, the AI giant quickly followed up with a second email stating that the pricing information was incorrect and that an updated filing would follow.
Anthropic did not specify which figures were inaccurate and declined to comment.