The placement de-risks the deal at a fragile moment for AI stocks. Locking in $26 billion of demand before launch makes a weak debut less likely and could steady sentiment across AI names if pricing goes well. The supplier-as-investor structure may also feed concerns about circular financing in the AI sector, the same theme that has weighed on credit spreads and hyperscaler funding. For the wider market, the final price and implied valuation will set a benchmark for AI valuations after last week’s selloff. A deal priced at the top of the range would point to resilient appetite, while one at the bottom would suggest the reset has further to run.
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Anthropic is going to market with its biggest suppliers as anchor buyers, a show of support that both steadies the deal and sharpens questions about who is funding the AI boom.
Summary:
- Anthropic plans to sell about 867 million new shares at $70 to $80 each, raising up to about $69 billion, according to a filing seen by Reuters
- Google, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Micron, Microsoft and TSMC will invest a combined $26 billion through a private placement at the IPO price
- The IPO and placement combined would raise roughly $87 billion to $95 billion; the IPO alone falls short of SpaceX’s roughly $75 billion record
- The implied valuation was not disclosed
- Shares are expected to start trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ANT” as soon as Thursday or Friday next week
Anthropic has lined up $26 billion from some of the biggest names in technology to buy shares alongside its initial public offering, setting terms for what could become the largest capital raise of any stock market debut.
The Claude maker plans to sell about 867 million new shares at $70 to $80 each, raising up to about $69 billion, according to a filing seen by Reuters. Google, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Micron, Microsoft and TSMC will together invest a further $26 billion through a private placement at the IPO price.
Combined, the IPO and the placement would bring in roughly $87 billion to $95 billion. Even at the top of its range, the IPO alone falls short of the record of around $75 billion that SpaceX set in June, but the total including the placement would exceed it. Some early reports described the IPO as record-breaking, which holds only when the placement is included. The implied valuation has not been disclosed, because the total number of shares outstanding after the offering was not reported.
The list of anchor investors stands out. Every company named sells chips, memory or cloud capacity to AI developers, making them both suppliers to Anthropic and now shareholders. That ties the deal closely to the wider debate over how the AI build-out is being financed, and how much of it is funded by companies that also benefit from the spending.
The commitments come a week after a sharp selloff in AI stocks, when the Nasdaq Composite shed about $2.5 trillion in value following the US midterm elections. The Wall Street Journal had reported that some major investors were pushing Anthropic to accept a valuation below the roughly $1.5 trillion previously expected, and well below the $2 trillion floated months ago. Securing large committed buyers at the IPO price before launch reduces the risk of weak demand in a nervous market.
Anthropic is aiming for its shares to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ANT” as soon as Thursday or Friday next week, according to the Journal. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are advising on the deal. The final price, and the valuation it implies, will be the clearest test yet of public market appetite for AI after the recent rout.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.