Is the AI bubble bursting just as Anthropic goes public?

As the AI industry enters a new phase, Wall Street is grappling with the uncertainty surrounding its trillion-dollar investment. In the first half of 2026, many artificial intelligence stocks reached record highs, following the success of US hyperscalers like Google's Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft. However, the second half of the year has seen significant volatility in stock prices, with major technology firms like Nvidia experiencing sharp declines.

Nvidia's shares dropped nearly 10% over two days following news of the company's board investigating CEO Jensen Huang's ties to a suspected Chinese spy. The sell-off also came amid growing pressure on lawmakers to regulate AI data centers, adding to investors' concerns about the potential return on investment.

Despite these challenges, some analysts remain optimistic about the AI industry's long-term prospects. Kit Rees, an investment strategist at Quilter, believes the recent sell-off is merely a healthy correction and that the AI boom is still in its early stages. Rees notes that investors are still eager to participate in the growing AI market, with companies planning to spend billions more in the coming years on AI-related infrastructure.

Anthropic, a company specializing in AI models, plans to go public later this month. The company aims to offer 825 million shares at a price between $70 and $78 per share. However, Anthropic's valuation has been reduced from its initial target of over $2 trillion to a more modest $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion, based on Goldman Sachs' estimate of over $600 billion in revenue by 2030.

While this valuation may seem high for a company currently generating only $52 billion in revenue, some analysts remain bullish on Anthropic's potential.