Anthropic Targets $64bn Nasdaq Listing at Up to $1.3tn Valuation

Anthropic plans to raise up to $64bn (£48bn) by listing its shares on New York's Nasdaq stock exchange, in an initial public offering expected to go ahead this month.

The AI company behind the Claude chatbot said it will offer shares at between $70 and $78 each. That price range values Anthropic at between $1.1 trillion and $1.3 trillion — large by any measure, but below the $2 trillion some analysts predicted just weeks ago.

The IPO arrives at a volatile moment for AI stocks. After last week's US midterm elections, the Nasdaq fell sharply on concerns that a Democrat-led Congress could slow AI development and the buildout of data centres. Investors are also weighing broader fears over the billions of dollars pouring into AI — and whether that spending will ever pay off.

What do the numbers say about Anthropic's business?

Anthropic is loss-making, and deeply so, but it is growing fast.

• Revenue for the six months to the end of June hit $16.2bn, up from $1.1bn in the same period last year — roughly a fifteenfold jump.
• Pre-tax loss over the same period widened to $80.7bn, from $12.9bn a year earlier.

So the company is scaling revenue far faster than the market average, yet it is burning cash at an accelerating rate too. The gap between those two lines — $16.2bn in and $80.7bn down — is the number investors will have to underwrite when the shares start trading.

The takeaway: Anthropic is selling investors growth, not profits, and at a trillion-dollar price tag.

Why raise $64bn now?

Fiona Cincotta, a senior market analyst at City Index, called the $64bn target "fairly bullish" given "the volatility [and] concerns towards AI that we've seen in sort of particularly last week."

She told Reuters: "It's showing that they are still sort of upbeat about the outlook as far as AI is concerned and that obviously that they think that the demand is going to be there."

That demand thesis rests on the revenue trajectory. A company that multiplies its half-year takings from $1.1bn to $16.2bn in twelve months doesn't need to explain why it wants capital — it needs to convince buyers the curve keeps bending.

The pricing itself tells a story. At $70 to $78 a share, Anthropic lands well under the $2 trillion valuation analysts floated weeks ago. That haircut signals a company reading the room: better to clear the market than chase the top of it amid a post-election tech selloff.

The takeaway: Anthropic is betting demand for AI outweighs the market's nerves — and has priced accordingly.

What happens next?

The offering is expected to go ahead this month. Between now and the first day of trading, three things matter: where in the $70-$78 band the shares finally price, how the Nasdaq behaves after its midterm-driven drop, and whether investors accept an $80.7bn half-year loss as the cost of $16.2bn and climbing in revenue.

If the IPO clears at the top of the range, Anthropic becomes a $1.3 trillion company in a single session — and the debate over whether AI spending pays off gets its biggest test yet on public markets.