Investors reportedly temper Anthropic IPO valuation expectations over revenue growth slowdown — SkimNews
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Anthropic investors discussed a valuation of about US$1.5-trillion at Wednesday's investor day in San Francisco, a significant step down from the roughly US$2-trillion previously expected for its November IPO.
- Anthropic told prospective IPO investors its Q3 revenue jumped 45 per cent sequentially to US$16.8-billion and that it was profitable on an adjusted basis during the quarter.
- The sequential growth rate disappointed some investors — revenue more than doubled from Q1 to US$11.6-billion in Q2, meaning Q2-to-Q3 acceleration fell well short of the curve they had projected.
- CoreWeave, backed by Nvidia, saw its shares and bonds tumble Thursday, reflecting broader investor concern about an AI buildout increasingly being financed with borrowed money.
- The broader IPO market has suffered setbacks — data-centre operator SB Energy delayed its listing last month and Holtec Nuclear pulled its plans to go public.
- Anthropic's prospectus reported a US$42-billion loss in 2025 and committed the company to spending at least US$518-billion over a decade on cloud services, computing and infrastructure, with Alphabet's Google and Amazon simultaneously investors, computing suppliers and distribution partners.
Why it matters: Investors see near-term AI market prospects hinging largely on Anthropic's IPO followed by OpenAI's potential listing next year, so a cooler reception would compound the Thursday selloff that already battered Nvidia-backed CoreWeave. A US$1.5-trillion markdown from the roughly US$2-trillion target — driven by decelerating sequential growth despite a 45 per cent Q3 jump — recalibrates the price tag on an AI buildout that Anthropic itself has pegged at US$518-billion in committed spending over a decade.
Ask SkimNews
