Anthropic heads for lower than expected $1.3 trillion valuation in stock market debut

Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, is anticipating a $1.3 trillion valuation when it lists shares on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange. The loss-making company plans to offer its shares between $70 and $78 each, raising up to $64 billion. This would value Anthropic at $1.1 trillion to $1.3 trillion, slightly below the $2 trillion some backers predicted in the summer.

The company is floating its shares at a volatile time for AI firms, following the US midterm elections and concerns over the potential slowdown in AI development under a Democrat-led Congress. Despite its recent results showing a significant increase in revenue to $16.2 billion from $1.1 billion in the previous year, Anthropic's pre-tax loss jumped to $80.7 billion from $12.9 billion.

Analysts view the $64 billion raise as bullish but acknowledge the volatility in the AI sector and concerns about the effectiveness of the investments. With a potential valuation of $1.3 trillion, Anthropic's listing is smaller than SpaceX, which valued at nearly $1.8 trillion when it floated in June.