Dario Amodei-led Anthropic’s prospective initial public offering (IPO) is reportedly facing fresh valuation concerns, with some existing and potential investors considering a valuation of around USD 1.5 trillion, below the roughly USD 2 trillion previously expected for the Claude parent’s planned November share sale.
The reassessment follows despite the AI company’s latest financial disclosures showing strong revenue growth and adjusted Q3 profitability.
As per a report from Reuters, a section of the existing and new potential investors got disappointed by the slower pace of growth compared with the previous quarter as concerns mount over the cost of developing and running advanced AI systems.
At an investor meeting in San Francisco last week, Anthropic told prospective shareholders that its third-quarter revenue rose 45% from the previous quarter to USD 16.8 billion.
Revenue stood at USD 11.6 billion in the second quarter and USD 4.7 billion in the first quarter, according to people who attended the meeting.
The company also reported a profit on an adjusted basis for the third quarter, helping address some concerns about the financial sustainability of its AI business.
The investor meeting brought together prominent shareholders and prospective investors, who met Amodei and Anthropic’s Chief Financial Officer, Krishna Rao.
The goal of the event was to familiarize investors with the Frontier AI lab ahead of its highly anticipated listing.
Anthropic’s planned listing is emerging as an important test of investor appetite for AI companies that are spending heavily to expand their computing capacity and develop more powerful models.
Analysts anticipate that the IPO will occur before OpenAI’s potential public listing in 2027.
A weaker-than-expected debut for Anthropic could weigh on the wider AI market, whose near-term prospects investors increasingly see as tied to the performance of these high-profile listings.
While the company is seeking a valuation of more than USD 2 trillion, the reported caution among the investors may prove to be a dampener for the Claude maker’s aspirations.
Despite the concerns, some attendees reportedly left the event feeling optimistic about Anthropic’s revenue growth and its progress toward profitability.
Analysts who met company executives earlier last week estimated that its annual revenue run rate could reach USD 110 billion by the end of the year.
Demand for its Claude family of generative AI models has driven Anthropic’s rapid expansion.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, including Amodei and his sister Daniela Amodei, who is now the company’s president, Anthropic has become one of the leading players in the AI industry.
The valuation debate comes as a technology sell-off hits global financial markets, with investors reassessing the cost of the AI buildout.
Shares and bonds of Nvidia-backed CoreWeave fell last Thursday amid concerns about the growing use of debt to finance data centers and other infrastructure.
Data center operator SB Energy has delayed its planned listing, while nuclear technology company Holtec Nuclear withdrew its IPO plans.
Anthropic faces similar questions about the relationship between its rapid growth and spending commitments.
In 2025, its revenue increased twelvefold to nearly USD 4.6 billion, even as it recorded an operating loss of more than USD 8 billion, excluding write-downs of liabilities largely linked to previous fundraising.
In its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters in September, Anthropic outlined its view that AI could transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialisation, electricity, and the internet.
The document reported a loss of USD 42 billion in 2025 and projected further spending as the company expands its AI infrastructure.
Anthropic has committed to spending at least USD 518 billion over a decade on cloud services, computing and infrastructure.
Alphabet’s Google and Amazon, serving as investors, computing providers, and distribution partners, have supported the expansion of Claude’s parent company. Both companies are also competing in the broader AI market.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Anthropic executives discussed how the company was using its AI systems to improve its operations, including designing a custom chip.
The company is seeking to use its technology to support its business while continuing to develop and commercialise more advanced models.
Amodei also reiterated Anthropic’s focus on AI safety during the meeting, although he did not discuss threats of human extinction, one attendee told Reuters.
The company has previously warned that advanced AI could pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.
Its research has also identified troubling behaviour by AI agents in test environments, including leaking sensitive information and sabotaging code.
Anthropic, however, has not found evidence of similar misalignment in real-world deployments.
A valuation of around USD 1.5 trillion would still make Anthropic one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Whether investors ultimately accept that price will depend on their assessment of its growth prospects, spending requirements, and ability to turn demand for AI services into sustainable profits.
The planned IPO could also influence how public-market investors value OpenAI and other AI companies preparing to raise capital.
For Anthropic, the challenge is to convince investors that its rapid growth can continue without the cost of building and operating advanced AI systems overwhelming its financial gains.