Company sent, then withdrew fundraising details sent to institutional investors

Bloomberg: Amodei to hold live IPO conversation with JPMorgan's Dimon on Friday

Anthropic has decided to complete its initial public offering this month despite a recent selloff in technology stocks and a scandal involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Pictured is Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. [Getty Images]
Anthropic has decided to complete its initial public offering this month despite a recent selloff in technology stocks and a scandal involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Pictured is Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. [Getty Images]

Anthropic is pressing ahead with its initial public offering before the US Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 26, even as a recent selloff in AI-related stocks and a scandal surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have clouded the market outlook.

The Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg all reported Monday, citing sources, that CEO Dario Amodei remains firmly committed to completing the IPO before the Thanksgiving holiday.

In a sign of the frenetic pace of preparations, Anthropic emailed institutional investors a fundraising plan outlining an IPO of roughly $70 billion in size, only to quickly retract it. According to Reuters, the company sent banks a copy of a securities filing stating it planned to sell about 867 million shares at $70 to $80 each, then sent a follow-up email saying the pricing details in the earlier message were inaccurate and withdrawing it. The company said it would revise the filing.

The initial email reportedly said Anthropic planned to raise between $60.7 billion and $69.3 billion through the IPO, and separately raise an additional $26 billion from major technology companies through a private placement closing immediately after the listing — bringing total proceeds to between $86.7 billion and $95.3 billion by combining public market proceeds with strategic investor capital.

The mandatory 15-day waiting period after Anthropic filed its S-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission ends Tuesday, after which the company can begin its investor roadshow.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Anthropic plans to meet with key investors this week and is targeting Nov. 19 or 20 to begin trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "ANT."

Market attention is focused on the target valuation Anthropic is expected to disclose in a filing early this week. The Financial Times previously reported the company is seeking a valuation of $1.25 trillion to $1.75 trillion, well short of the $2 trillion figure that had been discussed earlier. The retreat has been attributed in part to the recent tech stock selloff and the crisis facing Nvidia over the scandal involving CEO Huang. Some investors have suggested the valuation could be as low as $1.1 trillion to $1.3 trillion.

The Wall Street Journal noted that while Anthropic could delay the listing and wait for more favorable market conditions, doing so would risk sending a signal of fear to the market.

Bloomberg reported that Anthropic is also planning a live-streamed conversation between Amodei and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon — one of the lead underwriters for the IPO — to generate investor interest. The event is scheduled to take place around noon Friday in New York, with the two executives discussing the listing in a format to be broadcast live.

Market research firm Vital Knowledge warned that the ongoing selloff in AI-related stocks is making Anthropic's IPO increasingly difficult. "This means it will be harder to raise capital for capital expenditures, which could trigger further selling in a vicious cycle," the firm said.


kate01@heraldcorp.com