How Anthropic stacks up against some of the biggest US IPOs

By Shashwat Chauhan

Nov 12 (Reuters) – Anthropic is set to hold an IPO, giving the company a valuation of up to $1.4 trillion, the latest affirmation of Wall Street’s appetite for AI.

The AI lab, best known for its Claude chatbot, and some of its investors are aiming to raise up to $64.4 billion by selling 825 million shares at as much as $78 per share. The company will also raise $26 billion via a separate private placement deal with cornerstone investors including Alphabet’s Google, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

SpaceX’s $75 billion public offering in June was the biggest US IPO on record, dwarfing Alibaba, Visa and Facebook, now Meta Platforms.

The charts below compare Anthropic with high-profile market debuts of the past on valuation and fundamentals.

Anthropic’s owners are plowing ahead despite a recent selloff across the technology sector, as investors question the technology’s likely returns and the likely impact of rising debt costs.

“The timing of the IPO is notable because investors have become much more focused on the costs of the AI buildout than they were over the past few years,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.

“Political and regulatory uncertainties, along with a higher interest-rate environment, have also raised questions about future AI spending. As a result, many investors see Anthropic’s IPO as an important test of appetite for AI-related investments.”

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Anand Gopal, editing by Colin Barr)