Anthropic’s listing time is basically set: it aims to be listed on Nasdaq on November 19 or 20, and the stock code is planned to be ANT. The valuation range and issuance price will be disclosed at the beginning of this week, followed by intensive meetings with investors and road shows.
The trouble is the price.
When market sentiment was at its hottest some time ago, some people called its valuation close to US$2 trillion, and 1.5 trillion was once regarded as the benchmark. The AI sector experienced a sharp correction last week, and several heavyweight institutional investors began to lower prices, saying that $1.5 trillion was too high. A more realistic range is $1.1 trillion to $1.3 trillion. Some people also put the anchor point near $1 trillion.
From 2 trillion to 1 trillion, that’s half the difference. Within a week, the company itself has not changed much. What has changed is that the buyer has an extra bargaining chip.
The scale of fundraising has also not been settled. The company originally hoped to raise US$80 billion to US$100 billion. If the transaction is completed at this amount, it will be one of the largest IPOs in the world. The larger the scale, the more funding is required, and the easier it is to suppress pricing.
So far Anthropic has said nothing publicly about delaying. On the one hand, there is the rapid growth of revenue brought by Claude, and on the other hand, there are questions about the huge computing power expenditure and profitability. This week's road show has to confront the two views head-on.
Which number it is finally set at will be used as a reference by the entire industry. OpenAI and other AI companies lining up to go public are looking at what price they can sell for.