Anthropic seeks $1.33 trillion valuation as it launches IPO roadshow

The Claude maker set a price range of $70 to $78 a share on Tuesday, well below the $2 trillion figure discussed earlier this year, after last week’s selloff in AI stocks forced a rethink.

Anthropic began marketing its initial public offering to investors on Tuesday, setting a price range of $70 to $78 for 825 million Class A shares and targeting a valuation of roughly $1.33 trillion on a fully diluted basis at the midpoint. Pricing is expected on 18 November, with trading due to begin the following day on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker ANT.

At $74 a share, the company would raise more than $61 billion. At the top of the range it would raise up to $64.35 billion and carry a fully diluted valuation of about $1.405 trillion. Anthropic is selling 801,351,354 of the shares on offer; existing stockholders are selling the remaining 23,648,646. Underwriters have a 30-day option on a further 123.75 million shares.

Separately, the company plans to raise up to $26 billion through a private placement of non-voting stock to strategic partners, among them Alphabet’s Google and Advanced Micro Devices. Combined with the offering, Anthropic and its selling shareholders could take in more than $80 billion.

The valuation is markedly lower than what was being discussed only weeks ago. A figure near $2 trillion circulated over the summer, and as recently as early November investors expected a target around $1.5 trillion. The Nasdaq fell 5.5 per cent last week, erasing close to $2.5 trillion in market value in a single session, and major investors pressed for a lower number. Anthropic’s executives spent recent days with bankers from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley deciding where to set the range, a judgment that carries risk in both directions: too high and demand suffers, too low and the company is accused of leaving money on the table.

Published valuations for the offering vary because they count different things. Reuters, using only shares outstanding, arrived at a figure as high as $1.02 trillion. CNN put the midpoint at about $1.1 trillion once options and unvested stock are included. The $1.33 trillion figure is the fully diluted calculation.

The listing would be the largest ever for a company whose sole business is building AI models, and the first time a frontier laboratory carries a standalone public price. “For tech and AI, this is the first time a U.S. frontier lab carries a standalone public market price, uncluttered by an ad business or a rocket business,” wrote Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives & Co. in a note to clients.

Even at the top of its range, Anthropic would not displace SpaceX, which was valued at around $1.77 trillion when it listed in June and raised $85.7 billion.

The company’s financial disclosures are unusual in both directions. Its S-1, filed publicly on 26 October after a confidential submission on 1 June, reported revenue of $16.3 billion in the first half of 2026, against $1.2 billion in the same period a year earlier. It recorded an operating profit of $974 million on $11.6 billion of revenue in the second quarter, its first profitable period in any quarter the filing covers, while posting a net loss of $80.7 billion for the half, driven largely by charges on convertible instruments. The number of customers paying more than $100,000 a year rose from roughly 950 in September 2025 to more than 11,900 a year later.

In Tuesday’s amended filing, Anthropic said its run-rate revenue stood at approximately $81 billion as of the end of October, filling a blank the October prospectus had left. Run-rate revenue is an annualised estimate, not an audited figure, and the filing warns that growth at comparable rates should not be expected to continue.

Seven co-founders, including chief executive Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei, each plan to sell 3,378,378 shares, worth about $250 million apiece at the midpoint, leaving each with holdings valued at roughly $18 billion. They retain supervoting Class F stock carrying 51.1 per cent of votes. Board member Reed Hastings has indicated an interest in buying $300 million of shares through a donor-advised fund.

Investor appetite for AI listings is being tested elsewhere. OpenAI’s most recent private round raised less than half its target, at a valuation of $1.25 trillion.