Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup behind the Claude family of AI models, has filed papers for its initial public offering (IPO) on Monday with SEC, setting the stage for a closely watched technology listing amid growing concerns over AI valuations and rising investment costs.
The IPO is expected to provide a benchmark for how Wall Street values leading AI companies, including rival OpenAI. It would also give Anthropic access to capital to fund its ambitions, which require substantial investment in computing infrastructure to develop and operate advanced AI models.
Anthropic intends to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “ANT.” The number of shares of Class A common stock to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The group owns in total about 1.7 billion Class A shares.
The filing comes as market volatility and rising interest rates have prompted several technology and AI infrastructure companies to delay their planned listings.
Anthropic IPO: When will the company go public?
Anthropic is planning to hold its IPO around the middle of next month, with its prospectus expected to be made public as early as late October, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The timeline remains subject to change.
The company is expected to begin marketing its shares to prospective investors during the week of November 9, Reuters reported quoting sources. Anthropic declined to comment on the reported plans.
The listing stands out as other AI infrastructure and data-centre companies reconsider their IPO timelines amid rising borrowing costs and concerns about the sustainability of AI spending.
In June, the Claude make has confidentially filed with the SEC, giving the agency time to review its financials before they were made available to the public and prospective investors
Anthropic valuation: Why are investors reassessing its worth?
Some current and prospective investors are valuing Anthropic at around $1.5 trillion, down from approximately $2 trillion a week earlier, after the company disclosed financial details at a recent investor event, Reuters reported.
The reassessment comes as investors question whether the enormous sums being invested in data centres, chips and computing capacity will generate returns quickly enough to justify lofty valuations. Rising bond yields and borrowing costs have added to market caution.
Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in May in a funding round that attracted major investors from Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Founded in 2021 by a team of researchers, the company has emerged as a key competitor to OpenAI in the race to develop advanced AI systems.
Anthropic IPO vs OpenAI: Who will set the benchmark?
Anthropic remains locked in a fierce battle with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, to develop and commercialise advanced AI models. OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO in June and is expected to list by early 2027.
Amazon and Google were among Anthropic’s early strategic partners, investing billions of dollars while providing cloud infrastructure to train and operate its Claude models.
Anthropic’s IPO will also draw scrutiny to AI safety. The company’s research has highlighted potentially risky behaviours demonstrated by advanced AI systems in controlled tests, including code sabotage, fraud assistance and information manipulation. Chief Executive Dario Amodei has called on the global AI community to slow the release of new capabilities to address such risks.
The offering follows SpaceX’s record-setting IPO in June, when Elon Musk’s company priced a $75 billion offering at a valuation of $1.75 trillion. Anthropic’s listing will test investor appetite for major technology offerings amid market uncertainty and questions about the returns on AI investments.
From OpenAI to Anthropic: The team behind Claude
Founded in January 2021, Anthropic has seven co-founders who left OpenAI, bringing expertise in AI research, engineering and policy. Dario Amodei is the CEO, while his sister Daniela Amodei serves as president and chairperson of the board.
Tom Brown, Chief Compute Officer, helped engineer OpenAI’s GPT-3. Jared Kaplan, Chief Science Officer, is known for AI scaling laws, while Sam McCandlish, Chief Architect, specialises in large-scale AI training. Jack Clark, head of the Anthropic Institute, previously led policy at OpenAI, while Christopher Olah leads research into understanding how AI systems work internally. Several co-founders previously worked at OpenAI.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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