Bankers are preparing to raise Anthropic's valuation to $1.5 trillion or more ahead of its IPO

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other underwriters for the IPO of Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI model, received strong signs of demand at the start of the roadshow (presentations for investors) on November 10. They now expect to set the share price above the upper end of the range indicated in the IPO prospectus, the Financial Times reports, citing five sources. Meanwhile, venture capital funds that hold shares in Anthropic are already offering them to other investors at a price higher than the expected offering price.

If banks raise the price, Anthropic could raise more than $100 billion in its IPO, the FT notes. According to three of the company’s investors cited by the publication, Anthropic is now focused on raising as much money as possible to fund major spending on computing power, rather than securing the highest possible valuation.

On November 10, Anthropic disclosed plans to raise up to $64 billion. If demand exceeds supply, Anthropic will be able to increase the offering by nearly $10 billion through a greenshoe option. In addition, strategic partners, including Google, Nvidia, and Microsoft, will invest a total of $26 billion in the company at the IPO price through a private placement.

The $70–78 per share price range stated in the IPO prospectus corresponds to a valuation of Anthropic at $1.26–1.41 trillion, taking into account employee stock options and restricted shares. The company is expected to go public next week.

Analysts at the research firm Morningstar suggest that Anthropic’s market capitalization could range anywhere from $500 billion to $3 trillion, depending on the pace at which its tools are adopted. They estimate the company’s “fair value of equity” at $1.7 trillion.

This wide range reflects the enormous uncertainty surrounding how long the AI boom will last, the FT notes. In recent weeks, doubts about its sustainability have intensified. Against this backdrop, Anthropic’s investors have tempered their hopes for a $2 trillion valuation of the company, the publication adds.

Traders are placing large bets that Anthropic’s stock will surge on its first day of trading, according to CNBC. To do so, they are using pre-IPO perpetuals—contracts that track the prices of private companies and are traded on cryptocurrency exchanges.

On November 11, the Anthropic contract on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid was trading at $98 per share, giving the company a market capitalization of approximately $1.7 trillion. Last week, during the tech stock sell-off, it briefly dipped below $94.

Some investors who have been guaranteed a stake in the offering are already offering to buy back a portion of it, as was the case before SpaceX’s debut in June, the FT notes. A New York brokerage firm is selling “up to $500 million” worth of Anthropic shares on behalf of a venture capital fund at a price 4% above the IPO price, according to reports reviewed by the newspaper. Another venture capital fund is offering $1.25 billion worth of shares based on a $1.5 trillion valuation of Anthropic.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor