Anthropic Pulls Back IPO Price Range Sent to Bankers, Saying the Figures Were Inaccurate

The withdrawn document set out plans to sell about 867 million shares, which at the top of the range would have raised as much as $69.3 billion, according to emails seen by Reuters. A follow-up message told the banks the "pricing details were inaccurate" and that the company would update the filing later. Anthropic declined to comment to Reuters.

The Information reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the documents came from Anthropic's outside counsel in Canada, which sent banks the updated prospectus and then retracted it, saying some of the details were incorrect.

The price range is the figure investors have been waiting for. It fixes the valuation buyers will be asked to accept in what would be one of the largest stock market listings by an AI company, and it was expected in a filing early this week. Until a corrected version is published, there is no confirmed share count, price range or valuation, and it is not clear whether the $69.3 billion figure or any other part of the leaked terms will survive the correction. The registration statement Anthropic has made public so far does not include a price range.

The leaked filing also pointed to a private placement in which Google, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Micron, Microsoft and TSMC would together invest a further $26 billion at the IPO price. Whether that arrangement is affected by the retraction is also unclear.

The slip lands at a delicate point in the offering. Bloomberg reported that the regulatory waiting period before Anthropic can formally market its shares was expiring, and that the company plans to argue to investors that now is the right time to go public despite last week's slide in AI-related stocks. That sell-off erased about $2.5 trillion from the value of companies on the Nasdaq Composite.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that some large investors are pushing for a valuation below the roughly $1.5 trillion that had been expected, and that Anthropic aims to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT as soon as Thursday or Friday of next week. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are advising on the deal. There has been no indication that the timetable has changed.

Errors of this kind in prospectus drafts sent to underwriters are unusual at this stage of a large offering, when the price range is the main piece of information still missing before the roadshow. The banks will now wait for the corrected filing, which should show the range, the number of shares on offer and the valuation Anthropic is prepared to defend in front of investors.