Anthropic is maintaining its plans for a billion-dollar Initial Public Offering (IPO) in November, despite a financial instability scenario that has led several other artificial intelligence (AI) companies to postpone or cancel their stock listings.
The move by the developer of the Claude models places Anthropic under intense scrutiny from investors, turning its public offering into a barometer for market appetite for this technology sector.
According to Reuters reports released on Thursday (22), the company is reportedly working to publish its prospectus by the end of October and begin presenting its shares to potential investors in the week of November 9, although sources indicated that this schedule was still subject to changes.
Anthropic's operation has the potential to value it at up to US$ 1.5 trillion (approximately R$ 8.1 trillion). This figure reflects the high investor interest in AI growth but also underscores the high level of expectation placed on a company that still needs to prove how it will maintain its expansion in a more constrained financial context.
While Anthropic proceeds with preparations, several other companies that provide essential infrastructure for the development and operation of AI systems are reassessing their capital market access plans.
Data center operator Switch and AI infrastructure provider Nscale have decided to postpone their IPOs to later dates this year. In the case of Nscale, part of this delay is due to the need to respond to questions raised by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) team.
Other companies have also adjusted their strategies: SB Energy, which has the support of SoftBank, postponed its listing. Furthermore, AirTrunk REIT, supported by Blackstone, and Firmus, which receives support from Nvidia, opted to withdraw or suspend their offerings, as reported by Reuters.
This general movement occurs during a period marked by rising interest rates and market volatility, conditions that make it difficult to achieve valuations considered attractive for new stock issuances. Pressure has also affected AI infrastructure companies, such as CoreWeave, whose stocks and bonds have experienced a strong downward trend.
Anthropic's offering gains additional relevance, as other corporations may depend on the market reaction to determine the ideal timing for their own stock market entries. One example cited is the recent capital opening of Oura, which, according to sources heard by Reuters, had limited participation from long-term institutional investors, raising doubts about the true depth of demand for shares in new technology companies.
Thus, the success of Anthropic's offering may provide an indication of how much investors are willing to accept high valuations for AI-related companies, even in the face of high interest rates and increased pressure on industry costs. The company's challenge lies in converting these high expectations into an offering capable of attracting capital, without disregarding the uncertainties that have already caused other AI companies to revise their plans.
