Anthropic's IPO books fill up fast as it targets up to $90.4 billion

Big orders, bigger listing

Demand for Anthropic's debut has outpaced the shares on offer by a multiple, said people who asked not to be identified because the details are private. Those signals include anchor-size indications of interest. The same people noted the deal terms could still shift.

According to filings, Anthropic, best known for its Claude chatbot, together with its co-founders, is pursuing up to $90.4 billion via an IPO and a private placement. Combined, that would surpass SpaceX's IPO and establish the largest listing to date. The company did not offer comment right away when asked.

Pricing goals and the roadshow push

Anthropic is pitching a roughly $1.4 trillion fully diluted valuation, lower than some investors anticipated, Bloomberg News reported. It is common for companies to start with conservative terms and let strong demand lift the final pricing.

To drum up interest, the company has planned investor events, including a live-streamed session with Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Friday, according to a person familiar with the plans.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are running the IPO together with 20 additional banks, per the filing. Shares are slated to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market using the ticker ANT.

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Sales surge and how Anthropic counts them

Anthropic's Tuesday filing underscored rapid growth. The company said run-rate revenue reached $81 billion as of Oct. 31, an increase of $10 billion since the end of September. Bloomberg News previously reported a $65 billion figure at the end of July. Anthropic calculates run rate by annualizing consumption-based fees from the last 28 days and subscription fees for one month.

Those figures helped lift sentiment in AI stocks after last week's selloff. People familiar with the talks said investors had viewed Anthropic's potential valuation as not far above its last private round when the Cboe Volatility Index pushed above 25.

What investors are doing before pricing

Some investors are offering parts of their IPO allocations to other prospective buyers to collect additional fees and dial down risk when trading starts, and those holding pre-IPO stakes are also shopping them via special purpose vehicles.

The bottom line: heavy demand, a trillion-scale target valuation, and a climbing run rate will set the stage for where ANT prices and how it trades on day one. Keep watch for any changes to size or pricing and for signals from AI peers as the bookbuild progresses.

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