Demand for Anthropic's IPO Far Exceeded Supply — Bloomberg

Investor demand for shares in the artificial intelligence developer Anthropic as part of the company's upcoming IPO exceeded the supply by several times, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The increased demand was driven mainly by large, so-called "anchor" orders, sources told Bloomberg. They cautioned that the details of the IPO terms could still change.

A spokesperson for Anthropic did not respond to the agency's request for comment.

To generate interest among potential investors, Anthropic is hosting a series of events. For example, a live stream featuring the company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled for Friday, November 13, a Bloomberg source said.

The company plans to sell shares at a price ranging from $70 to $78 per share. It expects to raise up to $90.4 billion through an IPO and a private placement—together, these transactions will surpass the size of SpaceX’s IPO and become the largest IPO in history. Based on this price range, the company could be valued at up to $1.4 trillion—lower than some investors had anticipated. However, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other underwriters hope to set the final share price above the upper end of the range specified in the IPO prospectus, given the high demand, the Financial Times reported, citing five sources.

Bloomberg noted that companies sometimes deliberately set low price targets at the start of the formal marketing phase for an initial public offering, hoping that high demand will drive up the final price and ensure strong gains for the shares on the first day of trading.

Some investors are now offering a portion of the Anthropic shares allocated to them as part of the IPO to other interested parties: this allows them to earn additional commissions and reduce their risks after trading begins, according to Bloomberg. Other shareholders are selling their shares to buyers through special investment vehicles, the agency added.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are acting as lead underwriters for the IPO, with 20 other banks participating in the underwriting syndicate. The shares are expected to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ANT.

Anthropic's valuation rose rapidly: in May, it reached $965 billion, surpassing the estimated value of OpenAI—the creator of ChatGPT—for the first time.

Last summer, the company’s investors were counting on Anthropic to go public in the fall with a valuation of $2 trillion, the Financial Times reported. At that time, Anthropic announced a sharp acceleration in revenue—its projected annual run rate exceeded $65 billion.

In October, Anthropic reported to investors that it had generated $16.8 billion in revenue for the third quarter—a 50% increase from the previous quarter—and posted a positive adjusted profit for the second consecutive quarter. However, revenue growth turned out to be slower than it had been at the beginning of the year.

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