Anthropic’s initial public offering (IPO), prior to its debut on the exchange floor, has received purchase requests that sextuple the volume of shares available, which highlights the strong investment appetite for its stock market debut, according to sources familiar with the transaction cited by the Bloomberg agency.
The company that owns the “chatbot” Claude plans to place 825 million shares, with a preliminary price range of between $70.00 and $78.00 per share. If the offering were completed at those levels, the firm would raise between $57.750 billion and $64.350 billion ($51.616 billion and $57.515 billion in euros). Specifically, the company will issue 801.35 million Class A ordinary shares, while current shareholders will sell another 23.65 million shares of the same category.
The financial entities leading the placement have told potential buyers that Anthropic will give priority to shareholders already present in the capital, so retail investors interested in entering the IPO could receive a smaller number of shares than they had requested, according to information published by the aforementioned agency.
The U.S. AI “startup” has already filed its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where it is stated that its shares will begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. The exact date of the stock market debut is not yet official, although documentation submitted to the Australian regulator points to November 19 as a possible debut day.
In that same filing, the company details that the main placing banks are Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, two of the largest Wall Street firms, to which are added other major names such as JPMorgan, Citigroug, Barclays and Wells Fargo.
With the calculation of shares outstanding that the company expects following its move to the stock market, Anthropic’s pro forma market capitalization at the maximum price of $78 per share would be around $1.02 trillion ($911.660 billion in euros), or $1.4 trillion ($1.25 trillion in euros) if a fully diluted basis is taken into account, incorporating options and convertible securities.
Nvidia’s role in the IPO
Nvidia’s situation has been altered in recent days following the resignation of its CEO, Jensen Huang, as a result of scandals linked to his private life that intersect with the possible involvement in a spying case related to China.
In parallel, the semiconductor manufacturer has agreed to buy $10 billion (€9,048 million) worth of Anthropic shares in a $26 billion (€23,526 million) private placement, which will be carried out simultaneously with the IPO.
Anthropic considers Nvidia a strategic ally for its business activity, given that its business model requires a high level of investment to ensure the supply of its most advanced chips.