Anthropic's IPO Could Come Within Weeks. Amazon Already Owns a Piece of It.
By Google News AI ·
Amazon's balance sheet carried its Anthropic holdings at around $239 billion on Sept. 30, almost four times the amount at the end of 2025.
Amazon's Anthropic notes can't convert beyond a 12% ownership cap unless Amazon waives it.
Amazon's earnings per share almost doubled in the first nine months of 2026, to $10.42.
Anthropic, the AI lab behind the Claude models, has applied to list its stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol "ANT," but its amended filing on Nov. 2 still didn't give a price range.
Financial news service IFR reported last month that Anthropic plans to begin its roadshow (its pitch to big investors) on Nov. 9 and price the deal the next week, citing a person familiar with the process.
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Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) shareholders have a lot riding on how it goes.
Amazon has put $18 billion into Anthropic since 2023, and its balance sheet carried those holdings at about $239 billion on Sept. 30. With Amazon shares at roughly $267 as of this writing, the stake is about 8% of the company's market value.
Still, that $239 billion is Amazon's own estimate. I think what the initial public offering (IPO) gives Amazon investors is a market price to check it against.
The stake has two parts. The first is $8 billion in convertible notes (debt that can become shares) that Amazon bought from 2023 through 2025. Some have already converted, and the others are convertible into around 1.84 billion shares, according to Anthropic's filings.
The second is preferred stock. Amazon put $5 billion in Anthropic's Series G round in the second quarter of 2026. It also agreed to make up to $20 billion more available as it delivers computing capacity, and it spent $5 billion of that on the Series H round.
All told, Amazon owned 164 million preferred shares on Sept. 30, and each converts into 10 shares of nonvoting common stock at an IPO.
But the notes have a cap. Unless Amazon waives it, each note converts only up to the point where Amazon would own 12% of Anthropic's capitalization. Whatever can't convert at the IPO rolls over into future quarters or gets repaid in cash at maturity.
Amazon carried its preferred stock at $14.8 billion at the end of 2025 and at $92.5 billion on Sept. 30, while the value of its notes climbed to $146.2 billion from $45.8 billion. Together, the two came to around $239 billion, almost four times the year-end figure. But the two parts got there differently. The preferred stock was already at $92.5 billion on June 30, when the notes were at $97.9 billion.
The difference comes down to accounting. Amazon adjusts the preferred stock only when there's an observable change in price, like a new funding round, but it reestimates the notes every quarter. Both valuations include discounts for lack of marketability (an adjustment for shares that aren't easy to sell).
Anthropic's revenue, meanwhile, hit $33.2 billion over the first nine months of 2026, up from $2.5 billion a year before.
When Anthropic trades, investors can check Amazon's estimates. Every $10 of Anthropic's share price would be worth around $16 billion on the 1.64 billion common shares Amazon's preferred stock converts to -- and up to about $35 billion including all the notes.
Amazon's other income…
Originally published by Google News AI
