Anthropic IPO valuation talk slips toward $1.5 trillion

Anthropic IPO valuation expectations are coming down before the shares have even priced. Some current and prospective investors who attended the company's investor day in San Francisco on Wednesday discussed a valuation of around $1.5 trillion, Reuters reported, down from the roughly $2 trillion floated for the planned November listing. The same week, New York City's top financial officer asked the company to pause the deal altogether.

What happened

At the meeting, Anthropic told prospective investors that third-quarter revenue rose 45% from the prior quarter to $16.8 billion and that it was profitable on an adjusted basis, according to the Reuters report carried by Investing.com. Some attendees were disappointed by the slower sequential growth: second-quarter revenue had more than doubled from the first quarter to $11.6 billion.

The company has also committed to spend at least $518 billion over a decade on cloud services, computing and infrastructure. Last year revenue rose roughly twelvefold to nearly $4.6 billion while operating losses exceeded $8 billion, excluding certain writedowns.

Separately, Comptroller Mark Levine wrote to chief executive Dario Amodei urging Anthropic to pause its IPO until it addresses safety, governance and development-pace concerns the company itself has raised. In the letter, Levine said a "morally binding" accord Anthropic and five other companies signed with the White House was insufficient, and he cited reports that the draft S-1 runs 80 pages of risk disclosures.

Why it matters

Levine speaks for New York City pension funds with more than $325 billion in assets, though the funds' direct exposure to Anthropic is small: about $7 million through private equity holdings, his office told Reuters. The letter matters less as a vote than as a signal that large public investors will scrutinize governance at a company that warns of "catastrophic or existential risks."

The Anthropic IPO valuation reset also landed in the middle of an AI-credit selloff. Reuters linked the report to wider concern about AI financing as CoreWeave shares and bonds fell. The discussion shows investors weighing revenue growth against the capital commitments behind it.

Readers following Anthropic's recent safety disclosures, from its distillation safeguards to its internal evaluation incidents, will recognize the material Levine is drawing on.

Levine also took aim at governance. Anthropic is organized as a Delaware public benefit corporation overseen in part by a Long-Term Benefit Trust, and he cited press reports that its planned structure may give founders and trustees concentrated control, calling that gap between control and accountability especially concerning. He asked the company to spell out specific audits, controls and a timeline.

What's next

Anthropic did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the letter. Levine asked for a written response. Its closest rival, OpenAI, is expected to list in 2027, CNA reported.

Prediction markets show no consensus on price. On Polymarket's "Anthropic IPO Closing Market Cap" event, the $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion bracket led at about 24% early on Saturday, with neighbouring brackets close behind. Watch for an updated S-1 range, which would turn the Anthropic IPO valuation debate into a hard number.