AI company Anthropic plans to go public on Nasdaq | heise online

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The US AI company Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot, is heading toward one of the largest IPOs in history. According to the updated sales prospectus filed with the US securities regulator SEC, the company is seeking a total valuation of up to one trillion US dollars.

Initially, shares are to be offered at a price of between $70 and $78 (€62.40 to €69.53). The Anthropic share is to be listed on the New York technology exchange Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ANT. Private investors from Germany can participate in the stock market debut: For example, through the neobroker Trade Republic, it is still possible to subscribe to Anthropic shares directly in the app before the first trading day, within the specified price range.

Anthropic itself intends to sell up to 801.4 million shares, while existing shareholders will sell 23.6 million. CEO Dario Amodei is therefore targeting gross proceeds of up to $64.4 billion (€57.6 billion)—slightly less than aerospace and technology company SpaceX raised in its record debut in June. The Elon Musk-owned company generated $75 billion through its base offering and $86.2 billion including the over-allotment.

In the preceding months, the market had even speculated about a stock market valuation for Anthropic of up to two trillion US dollars. The reason for the valuation markdown is the marked cooling of global AI euphoria on financial markets, which was recently exacerbated by an industry slump as well as severe turbulence and allegations surrounding the chip giant Nvidia.

Billion-dollar deal with tech partners

The move onto the stock market stage is being accompanied by a billion-dollar deal with major industry partners, some of which also compete with the start-up. Several tech conglomerates have committed to buying stakes worth a further $26.0 billion directly from the company in connection with the IPO.

These securities, however, are not tied to any participation rights and therefore confer no voting rights. The funders include Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, Micron Technology, and chipmaker TSMC.

The figures submitted to the securities regulator demonstrate rapid business growth. Since commercial launch in the first quarter of 2023, quarterly revenue has climbed from zero to $17.0 billion in the third quarter of 2026. The main drivers, alongside the Claude language model, are software assistants such as Claude Code and Claude Cowork, which independently carry out development and office tasks.

Astronomical costs for computing power

At the same time, the document reports immense commitments to securing computing capacity. Anthropic puts its long-term purchase and leasing agreements for computer chips and data centers at around $900.9 billion. To distribute computing workloads, the company relies on systems from Amazon Web Services, Google, Nvidia, and AMD.

The distribution of power within the company is particularly unusual. Anthropic is legally organized as a public benefit corporation. Its management must therefore consider ethical standards and technology safety in addition to profit. An independent trustees' council controls the majority of seats on the board through special rights.

The co-founders, including CEO Dario Amodei and company president Daniela Amodei, are also guaranteed a fixed voting majority of just over 50 percent on all other decisions through special shares. Anyone who buys the shares on the stock exchange in the regular way thus has a full claim to financial profits, but practically no say in company management. Trading on the stock exchange is to begin as soon as the US authorities have finally approved the documents.