Reed Hastings fund seeks $300M of Anthropic IPO shares

A donor-advised fund tied to Netflix co-founder and Anthropic director Reed Hastings has said it wants to buy $300 million worth of shares in Anthropic's initial public offering. The interest appears in the AI company's amended S-1 filing, which TechCrunch reported is "already hinting at high demand." Board member Christopher Liddell also wants to buy $3 million of shares, according to TechCrunch.techcrunch.com

In total, board members and related entities may buy up to $303 million of shares, and nearly all of it would come through the Hastings-linked charitable fund, according to Stock Titan's reading of the filing. That analysis describes the indication of interest as non-binding. Hastings leads Anthropic's independent directors, and Daniela Amodei chairs the board, Stock Titan noted.stocktitan.net+1

Pricing and timeline

The disclosures came on Tuesday, November 10, as Anthropic launched its roadshow and set a price range of $70 to $78 per share. Fortune reported that the range would value the company at up to $1.4 trillion on a fully diluted basis, short of the $2 trillion some outlets had floated weeks earlier. Anthropic is selling 825 million shares on the Nasdaq ↗ 1.40% under the ticker "ANT," which would raise up to $64.4 billion at the top of the range, Fortune said. Seven strategic partners, including Google Alphabet Inc. ↘ 0.38% and Nvidia ↘ 5.47%, have also agreed to buy $26 billion of non-voting stock at the IPO price.fortune.com

Pricing is expected on November 18, with trading set to begin November 19, Connect Money reported, citing CNBC. The amended filing also says Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate reached about $81 billion at the end of October, up from roughly $71 billion in late September, according to Fortune.connectmoney.com+1

Founders sell, insiders buy

While directors are lining up to buy, each of Anthropic's seven co-founders plans to sell 3,378,378 shares. At the $74 midpoint, that comes to just under $250 million apiece, TechCrunch reported. After the sale, the founders will still hold about 22% of Class A shares as a group. Through supervoting Class F stock, they will control 51.1% of the votes.techcrunch.com

A shaky backdrop

The offering comes at a hard moment for AI stocks. Fortune noted that the sector sold off sharply after Democrats made big gains in the midterms, on fears of tighter regulation, and that the Nasdaq fell 5.5% last week. Nvidia shares also dropped on Monday after its board opened an independent investigation into reports involving CEO Jensen Huang. TechCrunch pointed out that with an IPO this eagerly anticipated, companies "can often price shares above the initial range," and insider orders like Hastings' will be watched for signs of how strong demand really is.fortune.com