Anthropic IPO Faces Real Risk as AI Bubble Fears Linger and Blackstone Sounds a Warning - Alphabet…
Anthropic, the company that created the popular AI chatbot Claude, is getting ready to go public through an initial public offering (IPO), possibly as soon as November. However, the company faces several challenges because investors are still worried about the future of the artificial intelligence industry.
Anthropic's IPO Comes as AI Company Stocks Fall
Anthropic is preparing for its IPO at a time when many AI stocks have fallen sharply. In Hong Kong, shares of Z.ai and MiniMax have dropped more than 80% from their highest prices ever. Both companies are similar to Anthropic because they focus on building AI models.
The same thing is happening in the United States, where shares of major AI companies are also falling. These companies include popular names such as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Micron (NASDAQ:MU), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), and SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK).
Even more importantly, SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX), which went public in June, has fallen 40% from its highest price. This has wiped billions of dollars off its value. SpaceX is an important company in the AI industry because it owns Grok and rents out data center space.
This means Anthropic's shares could also fall, especially if the company goes public while the market is struggling. In fact, most Polymarket traders expect the company's value to reach $1.5 trillion in December.
In the past, companies have usually chosen to go public when the stock market was doing well. This is because strong markets often help companies get higher share prices. When SpaceX went public in June, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes were close to their record highs.
Investors Are Questioning High AI Company Values
Anthropic is also preparing to go public while investors are becoming less willing to accept the very high values placed on AI companies. For example, Firmus, a data center company backed by Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), recently stopped its IPO plans after investors questioned its $30 billion valuation.
Nscale, another data center company backed by Nvidia, is thinking about lowering its $33 billion valuation because investors are questioning its high price. Shares of other major companies that provide cloud computing services, including CoreWeave, Nebius, and IREN, have also fallen sharply.
Concerns about Anthropic's value increased after the company released a document explaining its finances and plans. The document showed that Anthropic made $16.8 billion in revenue during the first half of the year but lost $80 billion. The company also plans to continue spending heavily in the coming years.
At the same time, Blackstone (NYSE:BX) has warned that Anthropic may not receive an investment-grade credit rating after going public. This could make it much more expensive for the company to borrow money over time.
Another sign that investors are becoming more careful is that OpenAI raised $11 billion from investors, far below the $30 billion it had hoped to raise.
Because of these challenges, there is a real chance that Anthropic may decide to delay its IPO until market conditions get better.
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