Anthropic IPO stands alone as rivals retreat
NEW YORK: Many technology companies once planned to sell shares to the public for the first time this fall. Now, Anthropic is the only one left on the schedule.
The artificial intelligence (AI) company is still planning to go ahead with its initial public offering (IPO) in the middle of next month. An IPO is when a company sells its shares to the public for the first time. Anthropic could make its prospectus, a document explaining its business and share offering, public as early as late October. People who know about the plans shared this information but warned that the plans and dates could still change.
Anthropic's planned IPO will show whether investors are excited enough about its important role in the fast-growing AI industry to buy its shares despite difficult market conditions. Some investors believe the company could be worth as much as US$1.5 trillion (RM6.1 trillion). Normally, when markets are this uncertain, bankers and legal advisers might tell a company to wait before selling shares. Anthropic is expected to start offering its shares to possible investors during the week of November 9, according to one person familiar with the plans.
Other companies that build AI technology systems and data centres have delayed their plans to sell shares to the public. Interest rates have gone up, helping cause sharp drops in the prices of shares and bonds issued by AI companies such as CoreWeave. Investors are also questioning whether the large amounts of money being spent on AI can continue for a long time.
The difference between Anthropic and these other companies shows how attractive Anthropic remains to investors, even while the AI industry faces worries about competition from freely available, open-source AI models and questions about AI safety.
Many big investors still believe Anthropic has a strong future, despite the market problems this fall. They see it as one of the few ways to invest in AI, a technology they believe people investing for the long term cannot afford to ignore. Other companies planning IPOs do not want to compete with Anthropic for the attention and money of large investment firms, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Anthropic declined to comment.
The slowdown in AI investments comes after several companies delayed or cancelled their IPOs starting in September. Unstable financial markets and rising interest rates have made it harder for companies to get the high prices they want for their shares.
Switch, which operates data centres, and Nscale, which provides technology systems for AI, have delayed their IPOs until later this year, according to people familiar with the situation. These people warned that the plans could still change. One other person said Nscale's delay was partly because the company needed to respond to comments from staff at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the government agency that oversees financial markets. SB Energy, which is backed by SoftBank, has also delayed its planned stock market listing, Reuters previously reported.
Nscale declined to comment. Switch did not immediately respond when asked for a comment.
AirTrunk REIT, which is backed by Blackstone, and Firmus, which is backed by Nvidia, have cancelled or temporarily stopped their plans to offer shares, Reuters has reported.
Oura's recent IPO has made other companies thinking about selling shares more careful. According to a person familiar with the offering, few long-only investors took part. These are investors who buy shares hoping their prices will rise, rather than betting that prices will fall. This has raised concerns about whether there is enough interest from large investment firms, which usually help newly listed companies by buying shares and holding them for a longer time.
The slowdown in IPOs by companies building AI technology systems shows that investors are looking more closely at the huge amounts of money needed to build data centres. They also want to know whether enough customers will need these centres in the future to make spending all that money worthwhile.
Recent events involving CoreWeave have increased worries that spending on AI could slow down. However, some people working in financial markets do not believe such a slowdown will actually happen.
Nscale publicly submitted its IPO registration documents in September. Switch submitted its documents privately, Reuters previously reported. When a company files privately, it can work with regulators to review and prepare its documents before sharing details about its finances and business with the public. Companies usually make these documents public before starting investor roadshows, which are meetings where they present their business and try to persuade possible investors to buy their shares.