Anthropic IPO Buyers Float $1.1T Valuation After AI Rout

Prospective buyers in Anthropic's planned IPO are now discussing a $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion valuation, with some weighing a figure as low as $1.1 trillion, Bloomberg reported.

That is down from the $1.4 trillion to $1.5 trillion range investors had previously communicated to bankers, and far below the $2 trillion some had floated in early October. The reset follows a brutal session for AI names: the Nasdaq 100 plunged 6.4% on Thursday, "wiping out $2.3 trillion in market value, a record for a single day," per the Bloomberg write-up carried on Yahoo Finance. Questions about the Claude chatbot maker's valuation "accelerated after the Democratic sweep of Congress."

Named asset-manager voices are circling the lower end. "If they set a valuation toward the bottom of the range, say $1.2 trillion, they shouldn't have a problem finding investors," said David Rainville of Sycomore. BNP Paribas's Stephan Kemper argued valuations "might need to be at the very low end of the rumored target range of $1.5 to $2 trillion, maybe some 10% to 15% below that." HSBC's Max Kettner went further: "around $1 trillion could be a more comfortable level for the valuation."

Anthropic and its selling shareholders "may start the formal marketing with a conservative size and valuation target and increase it based on a positive initial response from investors." Formal marketing is due to begin next week.

The listing lands in a crowded funding tape we've logged: 430 AI funding alerts across the last 90 days, including Agility Robotics' Nasdaq debut earlier today.