Anthropic Bankers Weigh Pricing IPO Above $70 to $78 Range, Lifting Valuation Toward $1.5 Trillion

Anthropic’s bankers are preparing to price the company’s initial public offering above the $70 to $78 a share range set in its filing on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported late Tuesday, citing five people familiar with the matter. A price above the range could lift the valuation to $1.5 trillion or more and push the total amount raised past $100 billion, the paper said.

The filing that opened the roadshow offers 825 million Class A shares at $70 to $78, which would raise $57.75 billion to $64.35 billion. Underwriters have an option to buy 123.75 million more shares. Seven strategic investors, including Google, Nvidia and Microsoft, will buy $26 billion of stock in a private placement at the IPO price, with Google and Nvidia investing $10 billion each, according to TechCrunch.

Demand ran ahead of the filed range

People familiar with the deal told CNBC on Tuesday that the order book was already covered at the $70 to $78 range on an allocable basis, and that institutional demand was running ahead of SpaceX at the same point in its offering. Anthropic and Goldman Sachs declined to comment to the Financial Times, and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond.

The mood has shifted fast. A week ago, large institutions told The Wall Street Journal they wanted a valuation below the roughly $1.5 trillion Anthropic had targeted, and Bloomberg reported on Nov. 6 that buyers were discussing $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion. Anthropic had been valued at $965 billion in a May fundraise, and the company was reported to be targeting $2 trillion a couple of months ago, according to TechCrunch.

What the filing shows about the business

The updated filing put Anthropic’s run-rate revenue at $81 billion at the end of October, about $10 billion more than at the end of September. Third-quarter revenue was $17 billion, and revenue for the first nine months of the year was $33.2 billion. The company reported a nine-month net loss of $104 billion, with compute and infrastructure commitments of $900.9 billion, and said it held nearly $132 billion in cash and short-term investments.

The valuation depends on how the shares are counted. On a fully diluted basis, the filed range implies a value of $1.26 trillion to $1.41 trillion, while counting only the shares outstanding after the offering puts it at $916 billion to $1.02 trillion. Morningstar analysts put fair equity value at $1.7 trillion, while saying the company could be worth anywhere from $500 billion to $3 trillion depending on how fast its tools are adopted, according to the Financial Times.

The company has not filed a new price range, and the Nov. 10 amendment remains its latest filing. CNBC has reported that pricing is planned for Nov. 18 and trading on the Nasdaq for Nov. 19 under the ticker ANT. Anthropic expects up to 20 percent of the offering to go to retail investors, and its Australian retail offer opened on Wednesday.

Reporting based on coverage by the Financial Times, TechCrunch and CNBC.