Anthropic IPO valuation under pressure as AI stock sell-off deepens

Valuation under pressure

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, had aimed to list its shares in the week of 16 November, according to US press reports cited by La Libre. The offering was expected to raise as much as $100bn at a valuation of about $1.5tn. Three large investors planning to take part told the Wall Street Journal that the valuation will probably have to come down, and one of them put the likely level closer to $1tn. Another investor questioned whether Anthropic could delay the listing altogether, while the company could also choose to sell fewer shares than planned.

A sell-off that hit AI stocks

The sell-off followed Democrats' midterm election victory, which investors feared could slow the building of data centres. On Thursday, 5 November, the Nasdaq fell more than 5.5%, its steepest drop since April 2025, and losses were estimated at about $2.5tn in a single session. Nvidia lost 9.3% and the chip index fell 12.3%. More than 50 companies in the S&P 1500 index lost at least 10% of their value that day, with Nebius, IREN and CoreWeave among the hardest hit. Reports that Microsoft had tightened oversight of selected data centre projects added to the unease, and results from Alphabet and Meta failed to calm investors who are questioning when heavy AI spending will pay off.

Valuation against SpaceX

Anthropic's listing would be the largest IPO on record, ahead of SpaceX's June offering, which raised about $86bn. SpaceX was valued at $1.77tn at its listing and gained 19.2% on its first day of trading. At the time of reporting, its shares were changing hands at $131, below the $135 IPO price, as the stock was swept up in the tech sell-off. Anthropic's valuation range was given as between $1.5tn and $1.6tn. Earlier, in October, investors had already reduced their expectations from about $2tn to about $1.5tn after Anthropic's revenue growth slowed.

SpaceX IPO, June 202686

Anthropic planned raise (up to)100

SpaceX IPO, June 2026

86 $bn

Anthropic planned raise (up to)

100 $bn

Data from the article text

UK retail investors

RetailBook has been appointed to coordinate an expected retail offer for Anthropic shares in the UK, according to a notice on the company's website. Six platforms, Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, eToro, Interactive Brokers, Interactive Investor and Revolut, are lined up to take orders from their clients. More than 100,000 British retail investors applied for SpaceX stock earlier, through a public offer platform the Financial Conduct Authority began using in January, and some received allocations of up to $135,000. Jason Hollands, managing director of Evelyn Partners, said the SpaceX experience may make some buyers more cautious.

“There will be some investors that feel a little bit bruised by the SpaceX experience so far”

Finances and next steps

Anthropic held $146.6bn in cash at 30 September, but investors are waiting for October revenue figures that the company left out of an updated S-1 filing, according to agency sources. Quarterly losses and heavy commitments to AI infrastructure add to the scrutiny of its valuation. Sources familiar with investor talks said the company may struggle to hold a planned presentation to prospective buyers in the week of 9 November. Management and its advisers are expected to meet in the coming days to discuss the offering, and they have avoided committing to specific dates. OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, has pushed its own IPO plans back to 2027.