Anthropic's $16.3 Billion S-1 Sparks Asia Chip Rally—Except China

Anthropic's IPO filing lifted Asia's tech stocks on Tuesday, with South Korea's KOSPI jumping 3.1% and Japan's Advantest surging almost 9% — while Chinese indexes fell.

Anthropic, the San Francisco-based company behind Claude, filed its S-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The filing disclosed $16.3 billion in first-half revenue, up from $1.2 billion a year earlier. It also revealed an operating loss of $693 million — narrower than the $2.1 billion loss a year ago — and a net loss of $80.7 billion.

The company plans to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "ANT." Media reports say Anthropic is targeting a valuation between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion, which would make the listing one of the largest on record.

Which markets rallied hardest?

South Korea's KOSPI rose 3.1%, with Samsung Electronics gaining 4.2% and SK Hynix jumping 5.2%. Fresh economic data added fuel: South Korea's economy grew 3.4% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2026. The rally interrupted days of heavy selling — the KOSPI had dropped 18.2% over the past month.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.7%. SoftBank, which is betting on AI for future growth, climbed 5.0%. Advantest, which makes semiconductor test equipment, jumped nearly 9%.

Elsewhere, the moves were muted. Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 0.1%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4%, and India's Nifty 50 edged up 0.1%.

Why does one filing move chip stocks?

A successful Anthropic IPO can restore investor faith in Asia's chipmakers, which have been hit by fears that Big Tech AI spending is about to slow.

"If the outlook for Anthropic is convincing with high profitability, more spending on AI infrastructure can translate into more sales and stronger pricing for Japanese and South Korean semiconductor supply chains," said Gary Ng, senior economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis.

In other words, Anthropic's revenue trajectory — a more than thirteenfold increase in first-half sales — functions as a read-through for the region's hardware suppliers. Tuesday's session repriced that exposure in a single day.

Why did China miss the rally?

Chinese stocks got no boost from the filing. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.7%, and mainland China's CSI 300 dropped 1.3%.

Even tech-related names sold off. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, one of China's leading chipmakers, fell 1.3%. Unitree, the buzzy robotics maker, dropped 4.8%, and AI processor designer Cambricon fell 5.7%.

One exception stood out: Z.ai, the Chinese AI developer behind the GLM family of models, rose 8.9%.

"Hong Kong and mainland markets barely budged because they sit outside the main U.S. AI supply chain," said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis. Export controls keep the most advanced chips out of Chinese hands, while users can already turn to cheaper domestic models from the likes of DeepSeek, she added.

The split leaves investors with a simple test: if Anthropic's Nasdaq debut prices near its reported $1.5 trillion-to-$2 trillion target, Seoul and Tokyo's suppliers stand to keep the tailwind. If it stumbles, a KOSPI still down 18.2% on the month has room to fall back.