Anthropic briefly shared the terms of an IPO targeting nearly $70 billion with banks before pulling them late on Monday evening. According to Reuters, the episode does not mean the offering has been cancelled, but it highlights the fragility of the market for AI-linked listings.
🔑 Key takeaways
- The registration document envisaged roughly 866.7 million Class A shares, priced between $70 and $80 per share.
- At the top of the range, the offering would have raised $69.3 billion.
- Anthropic said the pricing details were inaccurate without specifying which element, and promised an updated document.
- The backdrop is difficult: higher interest rates, a sharp selloff in AI-linked stocks and doubts over the sustainability of AI spending.
An Ambitious Offering Plan
According to emails seen by Reuters, an Anthropic representative sent banks a copy of a registration statement setting out the proposed terms. The formal launch of the investor roadshow was expected on the following Tuesday, with pricing to follow the week after.
The company then sent a second email stating that the pricing details were inaccurate and that it would update the document later. The message did not say which element was wrong. Reuters could not determine what was inaccurate, and Anthropic declined to comment.
The episode is brief but revealing. It comes as the company prepares a fundraising of unusual scale for a company of its age, and it illustrates the tension between the speed of a listing timetable and the precision demanded by a regulatory filing.
What the Initial Document Showed
The initial version described a sale of 866.7 million Class A shares, combining a primary issuance and a secondary sale. The table below summarises the figures reported across the three sources.
| Item | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Class A shares offered | 866.7 million |
| Primary issuance by Anthropic | 843.3 million |
| Secondary sale by existing shareholders | 23.3 million |
| Indicative price range | $70 to $80 per share |
| Proceeds at top of range | $69.3 billion |
| Concurrent private placement | $26 billion |
| Revenue for three months ended September 30 | nearly $17 billion |
| Compute commitments with partners | nearly $900 billion |
The roughly 867 million shares mentioned in the emails correspond to the rounded figure. At the $80 ceiling, the offering would therefore have generated $69.3 billion.
The document also referred to $26 billion of investments prepared alongside the listing. Google (owned by Alphabet), Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, Micron Technology, Microsoft and TSMC reportedly agreed to join a private placement of Class N ordinary shares at the IPO price, with closing expected immediately after the offering. The sources do not say whether these commitments were changed after the pricing information was withdrawn.
An Uncertain Timeline in a Pressured Market
The reported timetable called for a roadshow on Tuesday, followed by pricing the next week. Without confirmation from Anthropic, nothing establishes that it was followed. The sources also report no quantified market reaction to the announcement.
A Slowdown in AI-Linked Listings
The move comes as several AI infrastructure and data centre companies have delayed or withdrawn listing plans in the face of higher interest rates. That rate increase has contributed to a sharp decline in the shares and bonds of AI players, including CoreWeave.
Investors are also questioning whether AI spending is sustainable, a debate that weighs directly on the expected valuation of a company whose growth depends on massive investment in computing capacity.
“The pricing details were inaccurate”
Anthropic, email sent to banks
A Lower Valuation Ceiling and Heavy Dependencies
Investors had discussed a valuation of up to $2 trillion. Expectations have since eased, with $1.5 trillion now considered the top of the range, according to earlier Reuters reporting. No official valuation was disclosed in the documents concerned, whose pricing indications have been withdrawn.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, including Dario Amodei and his sister Daniela Amodei, now the company’s president, Anthropic has become one of the leading developers of generative AI, with its Claude model family. Its growth has been backed by Google and Amazon, which are simultaneously investors, suppliers of computing power, distribution partners and competitors in AI.
That interdependence raises a central question. According to Reuters, Anthropic’s expansion depends on considerable amounts of future capacity, part of which relies on financing whose evolution the company does not control. Its compute commitments with partners total nearly $900 billion.
In an amended registration statement published earlier this month, the company reported revenue of nearly $17 billion for the three months ended September 30. The same filing flagged a sharp slowdown in quarterly growth, although the exact percentage decline does not appear in the excerpt cited.
How Reliable Are the Reports?
Euronext republished the Reuters dispatch written by Echo Wang. RTTNews reported the same figures while explicitly stating that it was drawing on Reuters. The two secondary sources therefore do not constitute independent confirmation.
RTTNews also changed its headline to clarify that the plan’s details had been withdrawn, not that the IPO itself had been cancelled. None of the documents provided reports a cancellation; Anthropic has only said that an updated document would be sent. The Reuters and Euronext texts are dated November 9, 2026, while the Reuters web address carries November 10, 2026. Apart from that publication-date difference, the figures in all three sources match.
Outlook and Scenarios
Withdrawing the terms is not enough to conclude that the project has been abandoned. Three scenarios remain possible at this stage:
- Revival scenario: publication of an updated document, timetable maintained and pricing set within a revised range.
- Delay scenario: listing pushed back until the AI IPO market stabilises and rates ease.
- Restructuring scenario: a significant change in deal size, capital structure or commitments from partner industrials.
For observers, the key indicators to watch are the updated filing, any confirmation of the private placement commitments, the path of interest rates and the sector’s capacity to absorb new issuance. The revenue trajectory and the share of external financing in compute commitments will be decisive for the final valuation.
Sources
- Reuters, Anthropic IPO report (November 10, 2026)
- Euronext, Reuters dispatch by Echo Wang (November 9, 2026)
- RTTNews, based on Reuters reporting (November 9, 2026)
Cet article est publié à titre informatif et éducatif. Il ne constitue en aucun cas un conseil en investissement. Faites vos propres recherches (DYOR) avant toute décision.
