Anthropic Opens IPO Roadshow as Seven Chip and Cloud Suppliers Commit $26 Billion

The private placement, with AMD, Broadcom, Google, Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia and TSMC, would take the total raised to about $90.4 billion. The public offering alone would raise up to $64.4 billion at the top of the range. CNBC reported that, according to the updated filing, the seven buyers will pay the IPO price for Class N common stock that is not registered in the offering and is not bound by the underwriters' lock-up agreements. Stocktwits reported that the prospectus does not say how much each company will buy.

The arrangement ties the listing closely to the companies that sell Anthropic chips and computing power. According to the prospectus, Anthropic has committed to nearly $900 billion of compute capacity with partners including Amazon and Google. Stocktwits put total purchase and lease obligations at about $895 billion, mostly for computing capacity and data centres. The Decoder reported that some of that future infrastructure depends on financing Anthropic does not control. Because the same companies appear as investors, suppliers and customers, some investors have raised concerns about circular financing.

Anthropic is selling 801,351,354 of the shares in the public offering, and existing stockholders are selling 23,648,646. The company will receive nothing from the stockholders' sales. The underwriters, led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, have a 30-day option to buy another 123.75 million shares. The stock will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker "ANT". These terms replace a draft with a $70 to $80 range, which was briefly sent to banks on Monday evening and then withdrawn.

A Valuation That Depends on the Share Count

The filing does not state a valuation, and estimates vary with the share count used. On shares outstanding, the range implies a valuation of up to about $1.02 trillion, according to The Decoder's calculation. On a fully diluted basis, CNBC put the top end at $1.405 trillion, and The Information reported a range of $1.26 trillion to $1.4 trillion. Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in a private funding round in May. Prospective backers pushed back on a $1.5 trillion figure that had been discussed earlier, and one investor told CNBC that number was a "stretch".

The prospectus shows fast growth that is now slowing. Third-quarter revenue rose 47% from the previous quarter to $16.96 billion, after a 144% jump in the second quarter. CNBC reported that revenue for the nine months to September 30 was $33.24 billion. The net loss for the period was $104 billion, compared with $25.1 billion a year earlier, and came mostly from changes in the fair value of convertible notes and derivative liabilities. CNBC also reported that run-rate revenue was about $81 billion at the end of October, up $10 billion from a month earlier.

The roadshow opens at a difficult time for AI stocks. Last Thursday the Nasdaq had its sharpest one-day fall in 19 months, after Democratic gains in the US midterm elections raised expectations of tighter rules on data centre construction. Investors are also questioning how long the current pace of AI infrastructure spending can last.

Pricing Set for November 18

CNBC, citing people familiar with the deal, reported that the offering is due to price on November 18 and start trading on November 19. The same people said orders already cover the shares on offer across the whole price range, on an allocable basis. About 20% of the shares are set aside for retail investors, against a typical 5% to 10%, CNBC reported. "Everyone who owns our stock, whether an institution or an individual, becomes part of that effort," the prospectus says.

The placement investors' stock is not covered by the lock-up, so they will be free to sell their shares once trading begins.