Anthropic, the artificial intelligence firm behind the Claude chatbot, has launched its investor roadshow ahead of a planned public listing next week, in what could become one of the largest stock market debuts in history.
According to a regulatory filing submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, the company aims to raise up to $64.4 billion, targeting an overall valuation of up to $1.4 trillion, including potential shares, reports Al Jazeera.
Under the proposed offering, Anthropic plans to issue 825 million shares at prices ranging from $70 to $78 each.
Alongside the public offering, the company has secured $26 billion through a separate private placement backed by major global technology firms, including Google, Nvidia, Microsoft and AMD.
The planned listing is being closely watched as a major test of investor appetite for AI companies, which have driven significant gains in technology stocks and the broader US market.
Valuation expectations and infrastructure costs
The $1.4 trillion valuation target is lower than earlier projections, which placed the company’s value between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion.
The revised target comes amid growing concerns over Anthropic’s massive infrastructure spending and recent price fluctuations in AI stocks. Investors are increasingly questioning whether AI companies can generate enough revenue to justify their soaring valuations and sustain growth across the sector.
Despite market uncertainty, Anthropic has reported rapid financial growth. Its third-quarter revenue reached $17 billion, up from $1.4 billion a year earlier, while its net losses narrowed.
The company said on Tuesday that it was on track to generate around $81 billion in annual revenue, exceeding its projection from a month earlier by $10 billion.
Management attributed the growth to rising enterprise demand for its Claude chatbot across sectors, including healthcare, financial services and legal services.
To meet the growing demand, Anthropic has committed nearly $900 billion to computing costs through partnerships with infrastructure providers, including Amazon and Google. The commitment represents a major financial bet on sustained demand for its products.
Political backdrop and market reaction
The IPO comes amid an uncertain political climate following last week’s midterm elections, in which the Democratic Party secured control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the US Congress.
The incoming Democratic-led Congress has raised the possibility of tighter regulations on AI companies, along with potential new restrictions on the construction of data centres that power the technology.
Technology shares fell sharply following the election results, with the Nasdaq benchmark dropping 5.5 per cent on Thursday, its steepest single-day decline in more than a year.
The sell-off wiped out trillions of dollars in market value and was further fuelled by a fall in Nvidia shares after its chief executive officer was targeted by an alleged Chinese spy.
Although markets have since recovered some of their losses, the Nasdaq fell slightly below 1 per cent on Tuesday.
However, some market analysts have described the sell-off as an overreaction, arguing that the election outcome is unlikely to derail the continued expansion of data centres.
