Anthropic is pressing forward with what could be one of the largest initial public offerings in history, setting a price range of $70 to $78 per share in an updated filing released Tuesday — even as markets grow choppier and enthusiasm for AI investing shows signs of cooling [1][2].
A Landmark Offering, Scaled Back From Earlier Ambitions
At the top of that range, Anthropic's fully diluted valuation would reach $1.404 trillion, a figure that would make it one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world almost immediately upon listing [2]. The Claude-maker is offering 825 million Class A shares in the public portion of the deal, which alone is expected to raise between $57.75 billion and $64.35 billion [1].
That headline number, however, represents a notable retreat from earlier targets. Anthropic had reportedly been aiming for a $2 trillion valuation just a couple of months ago, making the current range a significant downward revision — even if it still dwarfs the $965 billion valuation the company achieved in a May fundraise [1][2].
Underwriters Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will have the option to purchase up to an additional 123.75 million shares at the IPO price, which could push proceeds higher still [1].
A Parallel Private Sale to Tech's Biggest Names
Alongside the public offering, Anthropic has struck a separate deal to privately sell $26 billion worth of non-voting Class N stock at the IPO price to a roster of the technology industry's most powerful players: AMD, Broadcom, Google, Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia, and TSMC [1]. Google and Nvidia are each committing $10 billion to that private placement [1].
Combined, Anthropic estimates total net proceeds — from both the public offering and the private sale — will fall somewhere between $84.6 billion and $93.7 billion [1]. That would make it one of the largest capital raises in corporate history.
Governance Structure Limits Public Shareholders
Investors buying Class A shares on the open market should be aware of what they are — and are not — getting. As a public benefit corporation, Anthropic's founders hold a special Class F share that carries 50.1% of the total voting power [1]. Additionally, a Long-Term Benefit Trust will elect a majority of the board [1]. That means ordinary public shareholders will have limited ability to influence the company's direction, a structure that prioritizes the founders' long-term mission over conventional shareholder governance.
Financials: Massive Revenue, Massive Losses
Anthropic's financial disclosures paint a picture of a company scaling at extraordinary speed — and extraordinary cost. Third-quarter revenue came in at $17 billion, with nine-month revenue reaching $33.2 billion [1]. But the company also reported a nine-month net loss of $104 billion, driven in large part by compute and infrastructure commitments that have ballooned to $900.9 billion [1]. Anthropic currently holds nearly $132 billion in cash and short-term investments [1].
Those figures underscore the capital-intensive reality of frontier AI development: even at revenues that most companies would never approach, the cost of building and running the underlying infrastructure can dwarf income by orders of magnitude.
A Complicated Backdrop
The IPO is landing at a delicate moment for the AI industry. The Verge notes that the months leading up to the offering have been marked by intensifying public debate around AI safety, while midterm election results reflected souring public opinion toward AI companies and the massive data center projects they are funding [2]. The weekend before the filing also brought fresh controversy, with reports surfacing about an alleged Chinese spy's connection to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — a reminder of the geopolitical sensitivities swirling around the semiconductor and AI sectors [2].
Anthropic's biggest rival, OpenAI, is navigating its own turbulence. OpenAI was reportedly valued at $1.25 trillion last week after raising $11 billion — nearly half the $20 billion it had initially sought [1]. That Anthropic is pushing ahead with a valuation that exceeds OpenAI's latest figure, even in a difficult environment, signals confidence in its competitive positioning — though whether public markets will agree remains to be seen.
What to Watch
Anthropic has applied to list its Class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "ANT," with trading expected to begin around November 19, according to CNBC reporting cited by TechCrunch [1]. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Anthropic is aiming for shares to start trading as early as Thursday or Friday of that week [2].
The key questions heading into the listing: whether institutional demand is strong enough to price at or near the top of the range, how the market receives the company's governance structure and its staggering net losses, and whether the private placement commitments from Google, Nvidia, and others provide enough of a confidence signal to draw in retail investors. The IPO will also serve as a broader referendum on how public markets value frontier AI at a moment when the sector's trajectory — commercially, politically, and regulatorily — is anything but settled.
