Amodei tells Dimon Anthropic aims to underpromise in IPO

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Friday, November 13, that his company's "deepest business dilemma" is getting enough computing power to support its growth without spending beyond its means. He also said Anthropic wants to "underpromise and overdeliver" as it heads into one of the largest stock market debuts on record, Yahoo Finance reported.finance.yahoo.com

JPMorgan hosted the conversation at its Manhattan headquarters and streamed it on YouTube Alphabet Inc. ↘ 1.02%. It was one of the last events in the marketing push before Anthropic's public debut next week, according to Yahoo Finance.finance.yahoo.com

Cash as a buffer for compute bets

When Dimon asked why Anthropic is going public now, Amodei said the company needs more cash to handle the uncertainty around its computing investments. Anthropic has to commit to expensive infrastructure long before it knows how much demand its products will bring in. Amodei said the company usually buys less capacity in advance than its forecasts would justify and adds more when demand runs ahead of expectations. "We actually tend to buy on the low side," he said, adding that "the more cash we have on hand, the more buffer we have between those two things".finance.yahoo.com

Those commitments are very large. Anthropic has disclosed $895.4 billion in committed spending, mainly on compute and infrastructure, and $447.5 billion of that is due before the end of 2030, Yahoo Finance noted.finance.yahoo.com

Amodei connected the "underpromise" line to advice he got before the offering. "Never let your company be worth a single dollar more than it's really worth," he said, calling that "very similar to a model that we have within Anthropic". The same principle appears in the founders' letter filed with the IPO, The Verge reported.finance.yahoo.com+1

A valuation reset

On Tuesday, Anthropic set a price range of $70 to $78 per share for 825 million shares. At the top of that range, the company would be valued at up to $1.4 trillion on a fully diluted basis, which is below the $2 trillion figure investors were discussing weeks ago, Reuters reported. Seven strategic partners, including Google and Nvidia ↘ 2.12%, have agreed to buy $26 billion of non-voting stock at the IPO price. Anthropic plans to price the offering on Wednesday, November 18, and start trading on the Nasdaq ↗ 0.18% under the ticker "ANT" on Thursday, November 19.fortune.com+2

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ↘ 0.18% and Morgan Stanley ↗ 0.38% are the lead underwriters, and JPMorgan is leading US retail sales. Evercore ↗ 0.69% analysts estimate JPMorgan will earn about $44 million in fees.finance.yahoo.com

Big ambitions, measured tone

Amodei's cautious remarks on valuation sat alongside a much bolder vision. He described a future in which AI makes major diseases a thing of the past and creates new markets. "It sounds starry-eyed. It sounds crazy. I really do believe it," he told Dimon.finance.yahoo.com