Anthropic Opens Australian Retail Share Offer as Bankers Weigh a $1.5 Trillion Valuation

The Australian offer opened at 10 a.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time and is due to close at 5 p.m. on November 17, according to a timetable published by Stake, one of the participating brokers. Commonwealth Bank of Australia's CommSec is the lead broker, joined by Bell Potter, LGT Wealth, Macquarie Group, Morgans, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sharesies and Stake. Anthropic said on its website that the offer will consist of newly issued Class A common shares under a prospectus lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and that investors must read that document and apply through one of the brokers.

The offer matters beyond Australia because it shows how far Anthropic is going to bring individual investors into what would be the largest listing on record. Australia is one of a small number of markets outside the United States where retail buyers can take part directly, alongside Japan, Canada and parts of Europe, CNBC reported. Anthropic will not list on the Australian Securities Exchange; its Class A stock is to trade only on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker "ANT".

Anthropic is seeking to raise as much as $64.4 billion from 825 million shares priced between $70 and $78 each, plus a separate $26 billion private placement of non-voting stock with seven strategic partners including Google and Nvidia. Together that would bring in up to $90.4 billion. The marketed range values the company at up to $1.4 trillion on a fully diluted basis, Fortune reported, well below the roughly $2 trillion some reports had suggested weeks earlier.

That range may not hold. The Financial Times reported late on Tuesday that bankers working on the deal are preparing to raise the IPO valuation to $1.5 trillion or more. Anthropic has not publicly changed its range. CNBC reported, citing sources, that the shares could start trading on November 19, which would leave the Australian book closing only days before pricing.

The stakes for Anthropic's largest backers are considerable. The Information calculated from the amended filing that Amazon's full economic interest, about 20% of Anthropic's shares if its convertible notes are counted, would be worth about $258 billion at the midpoint of the price range, against total investments of around $18.6 billion. A self-imposed cap means Amazon will hold no more than 12% of the shares outright, and neither Amazon nor Google will own voting stock.

The offer opens as Canberra tightens its stance on AI companies. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the government would introduce mandatory reporting of certain AI-related incidents and create an AI safety regulator with powers to impose penalties, after an OpenAI agent gained unauthorised access to the medical statistics website of Medicare, Australia's public health insurance scheme. The government is also considering changes to criminal law for serious misconduct and has ruled out a copyright exemption that would let AI developers train on Australian content without a licence. OpenAI and Anthropic told the Australian parliament last month that they would support mandatory reporting of data breaches involving their AI agents.

Australian applicants have until 5 p.m. on November 17 to apply, and the final price will be set in the US offering, not locally.