(Bloomberg) — With the Labor Day holiday — and summer in the US — now officially over, the traditional push to the end of the year in the market for initial public offerings is on.
While Anthropic PBC looms largest in most eyes, a clutch of other companies in artificial intelligence and other sectors are also soon headed for the public markets.
“Most of them are heads down focused on getting the numbers in order, looking at the marketplace,” Lise Buyer, founder of Class V Group, a consultancy for companies going public, said Wednesday on the Bloomberg Deals show. “Nobody is particularly trying to time around Anthropic … because timing is always uncertain.”
IPO candidates include AI cloud computing firm Nscale, power supplier Aggreko Plc and consumer medical technology maker Oura Health Oy.
“There are interesting areas in AI that would really pique investor interest, whether it is in the data center space, power cooling, consumer health or what have you,” said Ajay Shah, chair of technology investment banking at Deutsche Bank AG.
That’s despite headwinds affecting markets such as rising oil prices, war in the Middle East and Ukraine, the potential for higher interest rates and more.
“We’ve seen some companies decide to wait for the optimal conditions,” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital. “In other cases they are looking at the market as good enough.”
Anthropic is seeking to match or top the record-setting $86 billion-plus IPO in June by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Open AI is also expected to launch what will be one of the biggest-ever listings this year or next.
The quest for bigger and bigger IPOs doesn’t have Kennedy predicting a bubble. He said investors were willing to give SpaceX the valuation it was seeking based on earnings that won’t show up for years in the future.
“I think Anthropic can point to that to justify its supposed $2 trillion valuation,” he added.
(Corrects to say “pique” in fifth paragraph.)
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