Anthropic’s path to the public markets suddenly looks less certain. Potential investors are questioning whether the artificial intelligence company can launch its planned roadshow next week in time for a November listing, with some viewing the recently discussed $1.5 trillion valuation as too high. The doubts arrive after the sharpest technology selloff in a year and leave one of the [most anticipated listings ever](https://geroundtable.com/anthropic-ipo-amazon-biggest-winner/) hanging on market sentiment.
## What investors are asking for
The dispute is price. Investors are pushing for a more attractive valuation before committing, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Some view $1.5 trillion as the high end of expectations, and the company may need to offer a bigger discount to secure commitments, given its record of quarterly losses and the sums committed to partners building AI infrastructure.
Investors are also waiting on a number Anthropic has not shared. The company left its October revenue figure blank in its updated stock market filing, and investors want that number to judge whether growth has recovered after a slowdown in recent months. The roadshow was initially expected to start in the week of November 9, with pricing the following week.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday evening that IPO investors are skeptical Anthropic can achieve $1.5 trillion in a public listing. The Journal’s report landed hours after the first doubts surfaced, and it points the same way: the market will not pay last year’s price for this year’s listing. Anthropic has not commented on the valuation debate.
If the valuation is settled, other factors could decide the timing. If AI assets stay under pressure, the company could wait for a resilient market before asking investors to absorb an offering some expect to reach $100 billion. That is a sum to raise into a falling market, and it explains why the roadshow decision is watched beyond Anthropic’s shareholders.
Not everyone is bearish. Many investors remain enthusiastic about the AI buildout, and some analysts expect strong demand from ordinary investors, pointing to the reception for SpaceX. One investment manager said these companies will become public eventually and investors will still want in, even if private-market valuations pull back first.
## A market that turned in two days
The doubts follow a brutal stretch for technology shares. Wall Street spent Thursday questioning whether the company would move forward after a two-day selloff in AI assets that followed Tuesday’s midterm elections. Ballot measures in many states limiting data center development have sharpened political opposition to the infrastructure behind the AI boom.
The numbers behind the anxiety are stark. More than fifty [technology stocks in the S&P 1500 fell](https://geroundtable.com/nvidia-9-plunge-nasdaq-correction/) by ten percent or more, retail selling was the strongest since the pandemic, and technology has underperformed the wider market by 10.7 percent over the past month, the most extreme gap since May 2002. Credit insurance on CoreWeave and SpaceX debt hit records.
[Microsoft added to the gloom](https://geroundtable.com/microsoft-walks-away-nscale-texas-deal/) on Thursday, tightening oversight of data center projects run by smaller cloud providers after delays. The shares of Nebius, Iren and CoreWeave were among the day’s biggest fallers, and each has lost about half its market value over the past month. Anthropic declined to comment on the investor doubts.
## Our read
A delayed roadshow is not a failed IPO, and that distinction matters. Anthropic is one of the most sought-after private companies in the world, and analysts expect strong demand from investors once shares are on offer. What has changed is the price the market will pay and the timing, and both depend on whether the AI selloff steadies or deepens.
The $1.5 trillion figure was always the hardest part of this listing to defend. At one point this year investors talked about $2 trillion, but that was before the market started asking hard questions about how AI companies pay for their buildout. A smaller valuation with a successful listing beats a proud number that never reaches the market.
## Why It Matters
Anthropic is the test case for whether markets believe in the AI buildout at any price. A delay would deepen doubts about an industry that has spent hundreds of billions on computing, and it could squeeze the wider market, weighted toward technology firms. A successful listing at a lower price would show that demand for AI assets survives a correction.
## Background
Anthropic filed updated listing documents last week that disclosed $16.96 billion of third-quarter revenue and about [$895 billion in purchase commitments](https://geroundtable.com/claude-writes-90-percent-anthropic-code/) and leases, almost all of it for computing. The company has also told regulators that four of its models were trained without completing required safety testing, a disclosure that drew attention to how fast its development cycle is moving.
Source: [the Reuters exclusive](https://duke.fm/2026/11/05/exclusive-ai-backlash-could-threaten-anthropic-ipo-timing-potential-investors-say/)
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