Anthropic IPO Draws About Six Times the Orders for Its Shares Ahead of Planned Nov. 19 Nasdaq Debut

Anthropic's initial public offering had drawn orders for about six times the shares available by the end of Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, according to people familiar with the deal, as the developer of the Claude artificial intelligence models moves toward a Nasdaq debut that could become the largest first-time share sale on record. Demand for the offering has outpaced the early stages of SpaceX's roadshow earlier this year, Reuters reported on Friday, Nov. 13.

The order book was about two times oversubscribed by the end of Tuesday, Nov. 10, the first day of the roadshow, and had reached six times by Thursday, one person told Reuters. By comparison, SpaceX's IPO was two times oversubscribed by the end of its second day of marketing, Reuters had previously reported. Bloomberg News also reported the six-times figure on Thursday. The people spoke on condition of anonymity, and Reuters said details, including demand, could change. Anthropic declined to comment.

Terms of the offering

Anthropic said when it launched the roadshow on Nov. 10 that it is offering 825 million shares of Class A common stock at an expected price of $70 to $78 each. Of those, 801,351,354 shares are being sold by the company and 23,648,646 by existing stockholders, whose proceeds Anthropic will not receive. The company expects to give underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to 123.75 million additional shares, and it has applied to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "ANT." Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are leading the deal.

At the top of the range the IPO would raise up to about $64.4 billion, and the company could be valued at about $1.404 trillion on a fully diluted basis, TechCrunch reported. That compares with a $965 billion valuation from a private funding round in May. Anthropic also agreed to sell $26 billion of non-voting Class N stock at the IPO price in a private placement to AMD, Broadcom, Google, Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia and TSMC, with Google and Nvidia investing $10 billion each. Including the placement, Anthropic estimated net proceeds of $84.6 billion to $93.7 billion.

The company plans to price the shares on Wednesday, Nov. 18, and begin trading on Nov. 19, and is targeting a retail allocation of about 20%, well above the 5% to 10% typical for IPOs, CNBC reported, citing people familiar with the plans. Bankers have told prospective investors that existing backers will be prioritized in allocations, according to Bloomberg.

Revenue forecasts at the center of valuation

Anthropic's updated filing said its run-rate revenue, a measure of recent sales on an annualized basis, reached about $81 billion by the end of October, roughly $10 billion more than at the end of September. Banks are using projected 2028 revenue of about $270 billion to $280 billion as the key input for their valuation models, two people familiar with the projections told Reuters. Some sell-side estimates put revenue at about $52 billion to $53 billion in 2026 and $135 billion to $137 billion in 2027. One investor who placed an order said certain buy-side projections run 10% to 15% higher for those two years, while another who decided not to participate has a 2028 estimate about 30% below the sell-side figure.

Investors are weighing whether Anthropic can maintain its position as competitors such as Alphabet's Google develop rival models, and whether Claude's strength in coding can extend to the broader market for knowledge workers, according to Reuters. One investor who attended a roadshow meeting said the company had not provided detailed answers to some questions, and another said a group meeting did not include a dial-in conference call for institutional investors, which is standard practice. Morgan Stanley declined to comment to Reuters, and Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond.

SpaceX and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike are among the companies being used as valuation benchmarks, one person told Reuters. Anthropic's filing also lists nearly $900 billion in computing commitments with partners including Amazon and Alphabet, the Times of India reported.

Market backdrop

The offering is being marketed during a volatile stretch for AI-related stocks. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite 0.9% on Friday as chipmakers declined following the resignation of Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, though both indexes posted weekly gains. CNBC also reported that Anthropic had been looking toward a $2 trillion valuation until recently and that some existing investors had been bracing for a lower figure.

Seven co-founders, including chief executive Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei, each plan to sell nearly 3.4 million shares in the offering, worth about $250 million each at the $74 midpoint of the range, according to TechCrunch. If completed as planned, Anthropic's listing would follow SpaceX's June IPO, which raised a record $85.7 billion, CNBC reported.