Anthropic began marketing its IPO on 9 November as it and OpenAI pursued substantial financing at lower-than-expected valuation targets after a market rout, Bloomberg reported in its AI Today newsletter. The offering would sell Anthropic shares to public-market investors. Some prospective buyers thought the company could be worth as little as $1.1 trillion, against roughly $2 trillion that investors were said to expect about a month earlier, Martin Cid reported on 8 November.
Key points
- Anthropic began marketing its IPO on 9 November as it and OpenAI pursued financing at lower-than-expected valuation targets.
- Some prospective Anthropic buyers put its value as low as $1.1 trillion, while the company hoped for $1.5 trillion.
- OpenAI received $11 billion from investors on 6 November at a $1.25 trillion valuation; its wider round had not closed.
Anthropic seeks a $1.5 trillion IPO valuation
Anthropic hoped to secure a $1.5 trillion valuation for its listing. Martin Cid reported that several of the company’s own investors, according to The Wall Street Journal, did not consider that figure realistic. One shareholder suggested a value closer to $1 trillion. Those figures are prospective prices rather than the result of an IPO sale.
Anthropic had filed its S-1 registration statement before the marketing began. An AI Affairs report on the draft IPO prospectus covered an $80.7 billion loss. Another AI Affairs report put investors’ sought valuation at $1.5 trillion to $1.6 trillion.
The figures leave Anthropic marketing shares to prospective public investors while it also seeks substantial new financing. Bloomberg reported that both Anthropic and OpenAI were pursuing their deals after a market rout, at valuation targets below what had been expected. The buyers considering Anthropic’s IPO shares could therefore set a price different from the one the company hopes to obtain.
OpenAI receives $11 billion at $1.25 trillion
OpenAI received $11 billion from investors on 6 November in a round valuing it at $1.25 trillion, Martin Cid reported. Investors had wired the money, although the wider round had not closed and OpenAI was still seeking more. The total could reach about $20 billion in the coming weeks.
OpenAI had sought $30 billion at a valuation of about $1.4 trillion. The $11 billion received and the $1.25 trillion valuation both fell below those sought figures. AI Affairs has separately reported the $11 billion funding close.
OpenAI raised $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation in March. Its latest private financing gives prospective Anthropic buyers a recent transaction to consider, though Anthropic’s proposed public offering and OpenAI’s private round have different buyers. The $1.1 trillion figure for Anthropic remains an estimate from some potential IPO buyers, while OpenAI’s investors have transferred funds at the reported $1.25 trillion valuation.
Anthropic and OpenAI report different growth rates
Anthropic’s filing put third-quarter revenue growth at 1,127% from a year earlier. OpenAI ended the quarter with $50 billion in annualised revenue, up 77%, on figures reported by the Financial Times. It also reported that OpenAI’s enterprise sales more than doubled. The Anthropic figure measures quarterly year-on-year growth; the OpenAI figure describes growth in annualised revenue.
OpenAI president Greg Brockman said growth slowed in the first half of the year and picked up after the June launch of GPT-5.6 Sol. The company’s financing comes against more than $665 billion in chip and data centre commitments reported by The Information in July.
