Anthropic IPO to move forward despite tech selloff: FT
By Google News AI ·
Anthropic ANT is pressing ahead with its plans for a U.S. public listing this month and is even prepared to accept a lower-than-expected valuation amid investor worries over an ongoing tech selloff, The Financial Times reported, citing multiple investors in the AI startup.
The Claude maker is racing towards its much-anticipated initial public offering before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday this month, the investors said, adding that the company is planning to raise $80B-$100B at a valuation of $1.25T-$1.75T.
While that is a significant increase from its current $965B valuation, the target falls short of the doubled price tag investors had hoped for as recently as a month ago.
“My view is they will price it very conservatively, call it $1.5tn, and go up from there,” said one large investor. Others taking part in the deal expected even a lower valuation of roughly $1.3T.
Anthropic’s ANT scaled-back expectations coincide with a sharp decline in AI-related tech stocks over the recent weeks, a selloff that accelerated on Thursday when the Nasdaq 100 QQQM plunged 6.4% on worries over a potential slowdown in AI infrastructure buildout.
Bloomberg reported on Friday that OpenAI OPENAI, which recently delayed its IPO plans, completed a new private funding round of roughly $11B, valuing the ChatGPT maker at $1.25T, a sharp decline from $30B or more it initially sought at a $1.4T valuation.
However, according to more than half a dozen Anthropic ANT investors, the company remains on track to go public even if its CEO Dario Amodei has to accept a price cut to achieve the goal.
“It’s just one milestone along the way,” one early investor of the company said. “They should treat it like every other fundraise: a means to an end.”
Multiple people familiar with Amodei’s thinking said that the CEO has shown little interest in beating Elon Musk’s SpaceX SPCX, which completed the largest ever IPO in June at a valuation of roughly $1.8T. “They don’t care about being bigger than SpaceX or maximizing the IPO,” one investor noted.
“They’re donating the majority of their economics to charity anyway,” he added, referring to Anthropic co-founders’ intention to hand 80% of their personal equity in the company to charitable purposes.
With $150B in cash and liquid investments on its balance sheet, Anthropic ANT expects to raise enough funding so as not to sell equity again, people familiar with its thinking said.
“Public markets are highly averse to dilution,” added another large investor. “When you are taking a company public, that should be the last time you tap equity capital markets. But it opens the window for debt.”
JPMorgan JPM, which leads U.S. retail sales of company shares, is expected to hold an “information session” for prospective investors on November 13, the FT said.
Anthropic ANT declined to comment on the report.DisclaimerContent provided by Seeking Alpha is intended for information purposes only, and that Seeking Alpha does not offer any personalist investment advice and is not a licensed securities dealer, broker, US investment adviser or investment bank.
Originally published by Google News AI
