Anthropic sets IPO range at $70-$78, eyes $1.4T value

Anthropic set a price range of $70 to $78 a share for its initial public offering on Tuesday, Nov. 10. The new terms put a number on what could be the largest listing in U.S. history. In an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the maker of Claude said it will sell 825 million Class A shares, which would raise $57.75 billion to $64.35 billion, TechCrunch reported. At the top of the range, the company would be worth about $1.4 trillion on a fully diluted basis. Counting only the shares outstanding listed in the filing, it would be worth about $1 trillion, according to Bloomberg.techcrunch.com+1

The valuation is well above the $965 billion Anthropic reached in a May funding round. It falls short of the roughly $2 trillion the company had been eyeing until recently, CNBC reported.cnbc.com

Big Tech backers and timing

Anthropic agreed to sell $26 billion of non-voting Class N stock at the IPO price in a private placement. The buyers are AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ↘ 0.88%, Broadcom ↘ 0.18%, Google Alphabet Inc. ↘ 0.05%, Micron ↘ 3.07%, Microsoft ↘ 0.83%, Nvidia ↘ 3.29% and TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited ↘ 0.35%. Google and Nvidia are each putting in $10 billion, per TechCrunch. With the placement included, Anthropic and its co-founders could raise as much as $90.4 billion, Bloomberg reported. Of the IPO shares, the company is selling 801.4 million and existing holders are selling 23.6 million.news.bloomberglaw.com+1

People familiar with the plans told CNBC that Anthropic plans to price the offering on Nov. 18 and begin trading on Nov. 19 on the Nasdaq ↘ 0.10% under the ticker "ANT." They said about 20% of the shares are set aside for retail investors, compared with 5% to 10% for a typical IPO. Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ↗ 0.55% and Morgan Stanley ↗ 0.56% are leading the underwriters.cnbc.com

Growth, losses and a shaky market

The updated filing showed revenue of $33.24 billion for the nine months ended Sept. 30, up about 1,200% from a year earlier. Anthropic posted a $104 billion net loss over that period, mostly because of fair-value changes in convertible notes and derivatives, CNBC reported. Run-rate revenue reached $81 billion by the end of October, and compute and infrastructure commitments total $900.9 billion, per TechCrunch.techcrunch.com+1

The offering comes at a turbulent time. Markets have been volatile since midterm elections in which voters largely rejected data centers and candidates backed by the tech industry, The New York Times reported. The Times said the deal will serve as a barometer for the AI boom. If it closes at the top of its targets, it would top SpaceX's June listing, which raised $85.7 billion, according to CNBC.cnbc.com+1

The founders hold Class F stock with 50.1% of the voting power, and the company's Long-Term Benefit Trust will elect a majority of the board, so Class A buyers will have limited say. In the prospectus, the co-founders wrote that "everyone who owns our stock, whether an institution or an individual, becomes part of that effort" to help "chart a safe course" through AI's development, CNBC reported.cnbc.com