Anthropic is pressing ahead with its plan to go public before the Thanksgiving holiday, despite a sharp sell-off in technology stocks that has already forced investors to rethink what the company is worth. The Claude developer is now targeting a raise of $80 billion to $100 billion at a valuation of $1.25 trillion to $1.75 trillion, with one large investor expecting a deliberately cautious price of about $1.5 trillion. The decision settles days of doubt about whether the listing would slip.
A lower price, not a later date
The range is a retreat from the roughly $2 trillion valuation some backers hoped for a month ago, yet it stays well above Anthropic's last private valuation of $965 billion. Investors in the deal say the company would rather accept a lower price than wait for calmer markets, and the Financial Times reports the listing remains on track.
Not every investor agrees on the number. One investor told the Financial Times he expects Anthropic to price very conservatively at about $1.5 trillion and rise from there, while others in the deal expect a figure closer to $1.3 trillion. A day earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that several large investors were pushing for a valuation below $1.5 trillion.
The money behind the listing
The filing behind the listing shows a business growing fast. Revenue rose almost 50 percent to about $17 billion in the third quarter, according to the company's amended filing, and the annualized revenue run rate has reached about $81 billion, up from roughly $65 billion at the end of July. Anthropic holds about $150 billion in cash and liquid investments.
The timetable is also taking shape. JPMorgan, which leads retail sales of the company's shares, is expected to hold an information session for prospective investors on November 13. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley lead the offering, with the shares expected to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. Anthropic declined to comment on the report.
Our Read
The real news here is the refusal to blink. After Thursday's rout, when the Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4 percent, delay looked like the easy option, and some investors were openly discussing it. Anthropic is choosing the harder path instead: take the lower price, list before Thanksgiving, and let the market judge the business rather than the moment.
The contrast with OpenAI sharpens the picture. OpenAI has closed about $11 billion in new funding at a $1.25 trillion valuation, and it has pushed its own listing plans into next year. Anthropic is doing the opposite, betting that a debut now is worth more than waiting. If the listing holds, the discount will look like prudence rather than weakness.
The risks have not gone away. Voters rejected data-center measures in 40 of 41 local ballots this week, and Anthropic's own prospectus warns that opposition to data centers is growing more organized. The company has about $900 billion in compute and infrastructure commitments over the coming years, so the listing will also test whether public investors accept that spending.
Why It Matters
This listing will set the price for the artificial intelligence era's debut. A debut near $1.5 trillion that holds would confirm public investors still back frontier labs, even after a week for technology stocks. A weak debut would do the opposite, repricing rivals and making every later listing harder. Either way, the number Anthropic accepts will echo across the sector.
Background
Anthropic filed to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT in October, and its amended filing put purchase commitments and lease agreements at about $895.4 billion, almost all tied to computing capacity. Amazon, the company's largest outside backer, stands to gain the most from a successful debut. The listing was already the most watched in technology.
Source: Financial Times report, via Seeking Alpha and Wall Street Journal report, via SiliconReport
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