Anthropic targets IPO before Thanksgiving, Bloomberg says

Anthropic PBC wants to go public as soon as the middle of November, which would put one of the biggest share sales on record ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. Bloomberg reported the plan on Oct. 1, citing people familiar with the matter. According to Bloomberg, the maker of the Claude chatbot could start formal marketing of the offering as early as the week of Nov. 9 and begin trading before Thanksgiving on Nov. 26. Dealmaking usually stops in the days around the holiday.bloomberg

The new schedule comes after the company pushed back its earlier plans to list. The Wall Street Journal News Corp ↗ 1.11% reported in September that Anthropic had moved its IPO to November, later than many investors expected. Some advisers thought the delay would let the company show third-quarter results that make its competitive position look strong, after OpenAI released a new model in September.wsj+1

A shifting timeline

The date has moved several times. Reuters reported on Sept. 4 that Anthropic expected to start marketing the offering in mid-October at the earliest and finish the listing a few days before the U.S. midterm elections in November. Reuters later reported that the IPO could slip until after the elections. A mid-November start to marketing would put the deal after the vote.tipranks+1

A valuation above $2 trillion

Anthropic could seek a valuation of more than $2 trillion, according to an exclusive Reuters report based on the company's draft prospectus. That is more than double the $965 billion Anthropic itself estimated it was worth in May. At that size, the offering would be among the largest stock listings ever and could be bigger than SpaceX's offering in June. Earlier Reuters reporting said the company could raise up to $100 billion, with Nvidia ↗ 2.12% considering a cornerstone investment of as much as $10 billion.reuters+2

The prospectus also shows rising costs. It lists about $518 billion in commitments for cloud, computing and infrastructure over the coming years. The company also warns that advanced AI could pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity". The Economic Times reported that the filing shows a growing net loss and heavy reliance on Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. ↘ 0.05% and Google.tipranks+1

The listing plans come as Chief Executive Dario Amodei calls for the industry to slow down. In mid-September he proposed that AI developers open their models to outside evaluators and agree on common safety standards. That puts the company's argument for caution alongside its effort to raise large amounts of public money to keep building more powerful AI.cnbc