Anthropic has set a price range of $70 to $78 a share for its planned initial public offering, according to its updated filing, which would value the company at up to about $1.4 trillion on a fully diluted basis. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ANT.” CNBC, citing unnamed sources, reports that pricing is planned for November 18 and trading for November 19. Nothing is final until the shares are priced. Here is what TechCrunch, CNBC and Fortune report from the filing. This is general information, not investment advice.
The offering
- Shares and price: 825 million Class A shares at $70 to $78, raising up to about $64.35 billion at the top of the range. TechCrunch puts the gross raise at $57.75 billion to $64.35 billion.
- Valuation: up to roughly $1.4 trillion, compared with the $965 billion set in Anthropic’s May funding round. Both CNBC and Fortune note that figure is well below the roughly $2 trillion some outlets reported weeks earlier.
- Private placement: Anthropic will sell $26 billion of non-voting Class N stock at the IPO price to AMD, Broadcom, Google, Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia and TSMC, per TechCrunch and CNBC. CNBC says those shares are not registered in the offering and are not subject to underwriter lock-ups.
- Retail allocation: CNBC’s sources say Anthropic is targeting about 20% for retail investors, well above the typical 5% to 10%. TechCrunch says up to 20%.
The business numbers
Fortune reports that, per the amended filing, annualized revenue reached about $81 billion at the end of October, up from roughly $71 billion in late September. TechCrunch adds third-quarter revenue of $17 billion and nine-month revenue of $33.2 billion, alongside a nine-month net loss of $104 billion and compute and infrastructure commitments of $900.9 billion. Those last three figures come from TechCrunch alone, so check the filing before relying on them.
Control and governance
TechCrunch reports that, as a public benefit corporation, Anthropic’s founders hold a Class F share carrying 50.1% of the voting power, and that its Long-Term Benefit Trust elects a majority of the board. Buyers of Class A shares would have what the filing calls “limited influence.”
Risks the filing flags
Fortune says the prospectus warns that using AI to build more capable AI carries safety risk, especially if such progress “sharply accelerates the pace of progress.” An amendment says Anthropic’s internal estimates indicate it “may imminently meet” the threshold in its Responsible Scaling Policy for “dramatically accelerated progress attributable to AI.” Anthropic says no current model has crossed that threshold and that it is considering policy changes “to keep humans in control of frontier model development.”
The market backdrop
The offering arrives during a rough stretch for AI stocks. Fortune reports the Nasdaq fell 5.5% last week and that investors are worried about stricter regulation and scrutiny of data center build-outs after the midterm elections. CNBC adds that some existing shareholders said even a $1.5 trillion valuation was in doubt. CNBC’s sources, however, say institutional demand is stronger than it was for SpaceX at the same stage and that the book is covered across the range. Those are anonymous claims, not figures from the filing.
Update, November 12. Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter, that the offering is “oversubscribed multiple times,” driven by anchor-size indications of interest, according to Yahoo Finance and IBTimes. Both outlets say Anthropic is seeking as much as $90.4 billion across the IPO and the $26 billion private placement. At the $74 midpoint they put expected combined net proceeds at about $84.6 billion, rising to about $93.7 billion if underwriters buy the extra 123.75 million shares. Neither reports a change to the $70 to $78 range, and the final price has not been announced.
What to watch
- The final price on or around November 18, which can land outside the $70 to $78 range, CNBC notes.
- The first day of trading, expected November 19.
- Whether your broker offers access to the retail allocation. Check with it directly.
Sources
- TechCrunch: Anthropic sets IPO price range of $70 to $78
- CNBC: Anthropic sets IPO price range, looks to start trading Nov. 19
- Fortune: Anthropic sets IPO range amid AI stock sell-off
- Yahoo Finance: Anthropic is seeking to raise over $90.4 billion (November 11)
- IBTimes: Anthropic IPO oversubscribed (November 11)
We did not read the SEC filing itself; figures are as reported by these outlets. Image: Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square, photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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