Anthropic is about to enter the capital markets, and this potential record-breaking tech IPO is opening its doors to retail investors.
According to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg, Anthropic has selected JPMorgan to lead the sale of shares to U.S. retail investors in its IPO, while Citigroup will coordinate the international retail offering. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is expected to personally take part in the bank's client solicitation efforts. Bloomberg reported that investors have told underwriters their fair valuation for Anthropic has been raised to roughly $1.4 trillion to $1.5 trillion, and a valuation of $1.75 trillion is also considered achievable.
This retail arrangement directly replicates JPMorgan's previous role in the SpaceX IPO — the $86.2 billion SpaceX listing drew more than $100 billion in retail demand, setting a historical record. Whether Anthropic can once again ignite retail enthusiasm is a question the market is watching closely.
Retail Allocation May Reach Up to One-Fifth as JPMorgan Expands Channels Across the Board
The report said Anthropic is considering allocating about 15% to 20% of its total IPO offering to retail investors. JPMorgan's solicitation efforts cover high-net-worth clients, private banking clients and brokerage platforms, giving it broad reach.
Citigroup is responsible for coordinating the international retail offering. Anthropic's IPO prospectus shows that the international offering involves Australia, Canada, Japan, some countries in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Related discussions are still ongoing, and specific details — including the proportion of the retail allocation — may change. Representatives for Anthropic, JPMorgan and Citigroup all declined to comment.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to Serve as Lead Underwriters
Anthropic formally filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday. The listing will involve the company and some existing investors selling shares together, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley acting as lead underwriters.
This is the first company whose core business is developing top-tier AI models to seek a listing, and the financial condition behind Claude is therefore being disclosed to the public for the first time — outsiders can not only learn about its profit scale but also glimpse its potential losses.
AI Arms Race Keeps Burning Cash as Giants Race to Raise Hundreds of Billions
Behind Anthropic's IPO lies the entire AI industry's enormous thirst for capital. The scale of funding required for AI model development and related infrastructure construction has pushed major companies to raise tens of billions of dollars at a time.
Meta Platforms launched an equity plan on Monday to raise up to $98 billion, which if successfully completed would become one of the largest such fundraisings in history; earlier this year, Google parent Alphabet completed an $85 billion equity financing plan.
At the same time, Anthropic and rival OpenAI, in the process of seeking record-breaking financing, are also facing increasingly severe public scrutiny — a series of high-profile hacking incidents launched by "rogue agents" has kept AI safety concerns in the spotlight.
Comments