Anthropic Targets November IPO as AI Listings Stall Across the Board

Anthropic could file a public prospectus as early as late October and begin marketing its shares to investors during the week of November 9, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Some investors believe the AI startup could command a valuation of as much as $1.5 trillion — a figure that would place it among the most valuable companies ever to go public.

The timing isn't set in stone. The timeline remains subject to change, according to the sources. But the very fact that Anthropic is pressing ahead says a lot about where the IPO market stands right now.

Why does Anthropic's timing matter?

Since September, the IPO pipeline for AI infrastructure and data centre companies has been shrinking. Higher interest rates and volatile markets have made it harder for issuers to secure attractive valuations. The casualties are stacking up:

• Data centre operator Switch and AI infrastructure provider Nscale have pushed their IPO plans to later this year, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Nscale's delay was partly driven by the need to address comments from US Securities and Exchange Commission staff, one source said.
• SoftBank-backed SB Energy has postponed its listing.
• South Korean AI chip startup Elice shelved its plans.
• Blackstone-backed AirTrunk REIT and Nvidia-backed Firmus have withdrawn or paused their offerings.

Against that backdrop, Anthropic's decision to keep preparing for its debut is the exception, not the rule. The contrast highlights the company's appeal to investors seeking exposure to leading AI developers, even as concerns about the industry's capital requirements intensify.

What does this change for investors?

For institutional investors, Anthropic represents one of the few opportunities to invest directly in a sector expected to remain central to long-term technology growth. That scarcity value cuts both ways. Other prospective issuers are reluctant to compete with Anthropic for institutional attention and capital, according to the report — meaning Anthropic's roadshow could effectively crowd out the rest of the AI listing calendar.

Anthropic isn't without its own risks. The company faces competition from open-source AI models and ongoing concerns about AI safety. Its eventual valuation will hinge on investors' assessment of its growth prospects, competitive position and its ability to translate demand for AI into sustainable business performance. A $1.5 trillion price tag is a ceiling some investors entertain, not a guarantee.

How deep is institutional demand really?

Two recent developments have made issuers nervous. First, Oura's recent IPO attracted limited participation from long-only investors, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. That matters because long-only funds are typically viewed as an important source of stable shareholder demand after listing — when they sit out, questions follow about the depth of institutional appetite for newly listed tech companies.

Second, developments involving AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave have fuelled concerns about a possible slowdown in AI spending. Some market participants, however, do not expect such a downturn to materialise.

The broader retreat from AI infrastructure listings reflects investor scrutiny of the enormous capital expenditure required to expand data centre capacity — and genuine uncertainty over whether demand will grow fast enough to justify current valuations.

What happens next?

The mechanics are straightforward. Nscale publicly filed its IPO registration statement in September, while Switch filed confidentially — a route that lets companies work with regulators on registration documents before making financial and business details public. Companies typically disclose their prospectuses ahead of investor roadshows, when marketing begins.

Anthropic's offering will be the sector's stress test. It will show whether investor appetite for leading AI developers can remain resilient even as market conditions grow increasingly hostile for the wider AI infrastructure sector. If the November roadshow lands at or near that $1.5 trillion ceiling, expect the shelved IPOs behind it to move quickly back onto the calendar.