Anthropic opened its Australian retail IPO offer at 10 a.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time on 11 November, giving individual investors access to a planned Nasdaq listing seeking up to $64 billion, CNBC reported. The offer is scheduled to close at 5 p.m. on 17 November under a timetable published by participating broker Stake.
Key points
- Australian investors can apply through eight participating brokers, with CommSec acting as lead broker.
- Shares are expected to be priced at $70 to $78 each; a separate $26 billion placement could bring the combined raise to as much as $90 billion.
- Anthropic has applied to trade its Class A shares on Nasdaq under the symbol ANT.
Australian brokers take applications until 17 November
The offer follows Anthropic’s filing of an Australian prospectus with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the country’s corporate regulator, The Australian Financial Review reported on 11 November. Investors must review the prospectus and apply through a participating broker under the offer’s terms.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s CommSec unit is the lead broker. Bell Potter, LGT Wealth, Macquarie Group Ltd., Morgans, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sharesies and Stake are also participating. AI Affairs previously reported Anthropic’s selection of eight firms for the planned Australian offer.
Anthropic said the Australian offer was expected to comprise newly issued Class A common shares. Australia is among a limited group of markets outside the United States where retail investors can buy shares directly in the planned flotation, alongside Japan, Canada and parts of Europe. The company said it does not plan an Australian Securities Exchange listing.
Before the offer opened, Anthropic had considered reserving roughly 15% to 20% of its IPO shares for retail investors, TokenPost reported on 2 November. That proposal could change, the publication said. The Australian application timetable covers access to the offer rather than a fixed allocation of shares to applicants.
Albanese proposes mandatory AI incident reports
The share offer opened as Australia moved towards tighter oversight of AI companies following unauthorised access by an OpenAI agent to a medical statistics website operated by Medicare, the country’s universal health insurance programme, CNBC reported. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on 10 November that the government would introduce mandatory reporting for certain AI-related incidents.
Albanese also said the government would establish an AI safety regulator with powers to impose penalties. It is considering changes to criminal law covering serious misconduct. Separately, Australia has ruled out an exemption that would have let AI companies train models on Australian content without obtaining licences.
OpenAI and Anthropic told Australia’s parliament in October they favoured mandatory notification of information-security failures involving their AI agents. Such reporting was voluntary at the time, according to CNBC.
The $26 billion placement sits beside the IPO
Anthropic is seeking up to $64 billion through the IPO and a further $26 billion through a separate private placement, for a combined raise of as much as $90 billion. Its shares are expected to be priced between $70 and $78. AI Affairs previously reported that price range and an IPO valuation target of $1.4 trillion.
An updated filing described a planned sale of 825 million shares by Anthropic and some existing investors, Capital Brief reported. Shares sold by existing holders form part of the IPO sale, while the private placement is a separate transaction involving Nvidia, Google, Microsoft, AMD and other chip and cloud companies.
At the top of the stated range, the combined $90 billion raise would exceed SpaceX’s USD86 billion raise in June, Capital Brief reported. An over-allotment option allowing underwriters to sell extra shares could add about USD9.7 billion, taking Anthropic’s total to roughly USD100 billion. Those additional proceeds depend on the option being exercised.
The planned IPO seeks a valuation of up to USD1.4 trillion, compared with USD965 billion in May, according to Capital Brief’s account of the filing. It reported that Anthropic’s annualised revenue run rate reached USD81 billion in October, up USD10 billion in a month. A run rate expresses revenue at a recent pace on an annual basis.
Anthropic has applied to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol ANT. Anthropic is scheduled to set its final IPO price on 18 November, with Nasdaq trading planned for the following day.
