Anthropic IPO: Why $1.5 trillion valuation is raising questions despite strong demand
Anthropic’s IPO could command a valuation of $1.5 trillion or more amid strong investor demand. Explore its fundraising plans, potential listing size and the risks surrounding AI valuations, competition and costs.
- Nov 11, 2026,
- Updated Nov 11, 2026 3:33 PM IST
Anthropic PBC’s bankers are considering raising the Claude chatbot maker’s valuation in its initial public offering (IPO) to $1.5 trillion or more amid strong investor demand, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people. Bankers expect the offer price to exceed the $70–$78 range disclosed in a filing on Tuesday.
The potential increase comes despite concerns about high artificial intelligence valuations and last week’s sharp sell-off in AI-related stocks. Jack Selby, who runs venture capital firm Copper Sky, warned that an underperforming Anthropic IPO could trigger a major reversal in the AI trade and that its shares could face further pressure after lock-up periods expire.
The IPO was fully covered at launch, with prospective investors placing orders for all available shares, Bloomberg News reported. Some Anthropic backers are also offering portions of their allocations to new investors.
Anthropic and its co-founders are seeking to raise as much as $90.4 billion through the IPO and a private placement at a market value of $1.4 trillion, according to the filing. The target reflects expectations that AI could transform professional work and that Anthropic’s tools could replace some of it.
The base offering could raise up to $64.4 billion. Anthropic is offering 801.4 million shares, while its backers are selling 23.6 million shares. A private placement is expected to raise another $26 billion from Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, Google, Micron Technology, Microsoft, Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Including the private placement and a potential overallotment option, or greenshoe, the fundraising could reach about $100 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations. The IPO is scheduled to be priced on Wednesday, November 18, and begin trading the following day.
The offering would exceed SpaceX’s $75 billion base deal and become the largest listing on record. However, Anthropic’s potential fully diluted valuation of $1.4 trillion would remain below the $1.77 trillion market value at which Elon Musk’s company priced its offering.
At the top of the announced range, Anthropic would have a market value of about $1 trillion based on outstanding shares. Including employee stock options, restricted shares and stock reserved for its charitable donation-matching programme, the fully diluted valuation would be about $1.4 trillion.
The fundraising comes as markets recover from a sell-off driven by expectations that tighter regulation of data centres and related infrastructure could increase costs and restrict AI development.
Selby, also a managing partner at Peter Thiel’s family office, told Bloomberg Television: “An underperforming Anthropic IPO has to be a very prominent player in what will be a pretty massive correction in the market with respect to AI.” He added: “If the most anticipated AI company’s IPO falls very short of its projected valuation, just imagine where it’s going to go after the lock-ups expire.”
Selby, who previously described enthusiasm around AI as the biggest bubble in private technology investing, said DeepSeek and other Chinese models were about six months behind Anthropic and posed a threat. Questioning Anthropic’s proprietary advantage, he said he would be “massively long Chinese AI” if he could. He described SoftBank and Oracle as “canaries in the coal mine”, with Oracle more exposed because of its high debt ratio, and suggested Google for investors who must own AI stocks.
Selby also questioned Anthropic’s decision to list despite its cash reserves and said more than 80 per cent of its revenue was non-recurring and vulnerable to advances by rivals. Pointing to spending on data, energy, data centres and chips, he said: “It’s a real business, but the business is still in its early innings and the idea that it is a trillion-dollar business seems exceptionally far-fetched.”
Anthropic’s listing could therefore raise about $100 billion and value the company at $1.5 trillion or more, while testing investor confidence in AI valuations, its revenue model and the sector’s ability to manage competition, high costs and regulatory risks.
Anthropic PBC’s bankers are considering raising the Claude chatbot maker’s valuation in its initial public offering (IPO) to $1.5 trillion or more amid strong investor demand, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people. Bankers expect the offer price to exceed the $70–$78 range disclosed in a filing on Tuesday.
The potential increase comes despite concerns about high artificial intelligence valuations and last week’s sharp sell-off in AI-related stocks. Jack Selby, who runs venture capital firm Copper Sky, warned that an underperforming Anthropic IPO could trigger a major reversal in the AI trade and that its shares could face further pressure after lock-up periods expire.
The IPO was fully covered at launch, with prospective investors placing orders for all available shares, Bloomberg News reported. Some Anthropic backers are also offering portions of their allocations to new investors.
Anthropic and its co-founders are seeking to raise as much as $90.4 billion through the IPO and a private placement at a market value of $1.4 trillion, according to the filing. The target reflects expectations that AI could transform professional work and that Anthropic’s tools could replace some of it.
The base offering could raise up to $64.4 billion. Anthropic is offering 801.4 million shares, while its backers are selling 23.6 million shares. A private placement is expected to raise another $26 billion from Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, Google, Micron Technology, Microsoft, Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Including the private placement and a potential overallotment option, or greenshoe, the fundraising could reach about $100 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations. The IPO is scheduled to be priced on Wednesday, November 18, and begin trading the following day.
The offering would exceed SpaceX’s $75 billion base deal and become the largest listing on record. However, Anthropic’s potential fully diluted valuation of $1.4 trillion would remain below the $1.77 trillion market value at which Elon Musk’s company priced its offering.
At the top of the announced range, Anthropic would have a market value of about $1 trillion based on outstanding shares. Including employee stock options, restricted shares and stock reserved for its charitable donation-matching programme, the fully diluted valuation would be about $1.4 trillion.
The fundraising comes as markets recover from a sell-off driven by expectations that tighter regulation of data centres and related infrastructure could increase costs and restrict AI development.
Selby, also a managing partner at Peter Thiel’s family office, told Bloomberg Television: “An underperforming Anthropic IPO has to be a very prominent player in what will be a pretty massive correction in the market with respect to AI.” He added: “If the most anticipated AI company’s IPO falls very short of its projected valuation, just imagine where it’s going to go after the lock-ups expire.”
Selby, who previously described enthusiasm around AI as the biggest bubble in private technology investing, said DeepSeek and other Chinese models were about six months behind Anthropic and posed a threat. Questioning Anthropic’s proprietary advantage, he said he would be “massively long Chinese AI” if he could. He described SoftBank and Oracle as “canaries in the coal mine”, with Oracle more exposed because of its high debt ratio, and suggested Google for investors who must own AI stocks.
Selby also questioned Anthropic’s decision to list despite its cash reserves and said more than 80 per cent of its revenue was non-recurring and vulnerable to advances by rivals. Pointing to spending on data, energy, data centres and chips, he said: “It’s a real business, but the business is still in its early innings and the idea that it is a trillion-dollar business seems exceptionally far-fetched.”
Anthropic’s listing could therefore raise about $100 billion and value the company at $1.5 trillion or more, while testing investor confidence in AI valuations, its revenue model and the sector’s ability to manage competition, high costs and regulatory risks.