Anthropic is marketing its Nasdaq listing at a much lower price than the market expected only weeks ago. Institutional investors are pushing back on valuation after a broad sell-off in artificial intelligence stocks.
According to Bloomberg, prospective buyers have been discussing a valuation of roughly $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion, and some are weighing a figure as low as $1.1 trillion. Investors had earlier signalled $1.4 trillion to $1.5 trillion to bankers. In early October, some backers floated $2 trillion.
The retreat followed a bruising session on 5 November, when the Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4% and lost about $2.3 trillion in market value. BNP Paribas’s Stephan Kemper suggested valuations might need to settle 10% to 15% below the rumoured $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion target. HSBC’s Max Kettner said a figure of about $1 trillion would be “more comfortable”.
According to Inki Cho, senior financial markets strategist at Exness, “The lower valuation may just be an immediate effect of the blistering AI tech sell-off. In reality, though, it has deeper economic implications. Does Anthropic have a so-called ‘economic moat’, or in other words, is the IPO economically viable? This is one of the questions worth pondering on as it prepares to hit the market at a $1.2 trillion valuation, which drags the share price down within the range of $70-$78.”
