Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, is reportedly aiming for a $1.5 trillion valuation in its upcoming initial public offering (IPO). This target is an increase from a previous range of $1.26 trillion to $1.41 trillion.
Online trading platform Capital.com has seen 'grey market' pricing for Anthropic rise from $1.3 trillion to $1.4 trillion within 24 hours. Daniela Hathorn, a senior market analyst at Capital.com, stated that this rising pre-market valuation suggests investor appetite for AI remains resilient despite a recent technology sell-off.
The IPO is anticipated next week and is expected to offer UK armchair investors the opportunity to participate with a minimum investment of £250. Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, indicated that Anthropic still appears on course for a value of around $1.5 trillion when it lists.
This strong interest comes as US tech stocks have rebounded following a recent sell-off. However, Nvidia, a chipmaker, has experienced significant share value declines, including an 8 per cent fall in pre-market trading on Thursday, wiping an additional $360 billion off its value. This brings its losses for the week to $640 billion, or 14 per cent, and the company has shed approximately $2 trillion since its peak on October 6.
Nvidia's board has reportedly hired lawyers to investigate its CEO, Jensen Huang, amid allegations, and the FBI is examining whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. Republican senator Kevin Cramer has called for Huang to step down, a move experts believe could further reduce Nvidia's value by 30 per cent.
Despite the situation at Nvidia, analysts suggest that the broader sentiment towards AI investment has improved, partly due to encouraging results from cloud computing group CoreWeave. Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, noted that the future of the tech stock rally may depend on whether investors prioritise Anthropic's listing success over Nvidia's troubles. Hathorn also cautioned that while IPO demand is strong, investors will be watching whether Anthropic's rapid revenue growth can translate into sustainable returns.