Anchor Investors Tell Anthropic to Price IPO at $1.5 to $1.6 Trillion, Down From $2 Trillion, WSJ Reports

Since a Japanese filing on Nov. 2 put a $3.5 billion price tag on one foreign slice of Anthropic's U.S. IPO, the picture around the deal has filled in. The valuation target is reportedly sliding, and the company has published who will sell its shares to individual investors outside the U.S.

Anchor buyers want a lower number

Institutional investors who plan to anchor the offering have told Anthropic the listing should price at $1.5 trillion to $1.6 trillion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company and its advisers had floated about $2 trillion in recent months.

The buyers cited "a general selloff in technology stocks and a desire to leave room for a first-day trading gain," the paper reported. That is the buyers' stated reasoning, not a finding about Anthropic's business.

Anthropic has not confirmed the pushback. It has not set a final price range or share count.

The $1.5 trillion figure was already circulating. Some investors had discussed that level before the Journal's report, and the Nov. 2 Japanese filing did not state an overall offering size or valuation.

What the numbers show

Anthropic told prospective investors that third-quarter revenue reached $16.8 billion, up 45% from the second quarter, the Journal reported. Second-quarter revenue was $11.6 billion, more than double the first quarter. Some buyers were disappointed that growth slowed from Q2's pace.

A separate reading of the amended S-1 puts Q3 revenue at $17.0 billion, up from $376 million in Q1 2025. That figure differs from the $16.8 billion Anthropic gave investors, so treat the exact Q3 number as unsettled until the final prospectus.

The same reading of the amended S-1 shows a $567 million operating loss in Q3. It attributes the loss to $5.0 billion of compute bought under short-term commitments.

Anthropic's last private valuation was $965 billion in May, according to Crypto Briefing. A $1.5 trillion pricing would still be a large step up from that mark.

Retail access across seven markets

Anthropic's website, updated Nov. 2, lists the brokers and selling agents authorized to offer shares to individual investors. The expected retail offerings cover Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, the UK and nine European Economic Area countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

In Australia, eight firms are named: Macquarie Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia's CommSec, Morgans Financial, Bell Potter Capital, LGT Wealth Management, Stake, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Australia and Sharesies.

The shared EEA and Switzerland list includes Revolut, Trade Republic, eToro, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, flatexDEGIRO, Interactive Brokers, Nordnet, Saxo Bank and UBS. In the UK, RetailBook is the public offer platform operator and is coordinating the retail offer, with AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor among the named agents. Japan's list includes SBI.

Anthropic says it has not authorized any other firm or platform to offer or advertise access to the shares. It says it will update the page if the list changes.

The company does not intend to list on any exchange outside the U.S. It plans to list Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker ANT. Eligible European clients could subscribe at the offering price instead of waiting for trading to begin.

A dedicated site, ipo.anthropic.com, has also gone live. It shows only the text "More information to come," though developers examining its code found preconfigured paths for the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and Japan.

How it compares to the market

The Japanese slice of up to 552.9 billion yen ($3.5 billion) compares with the $2.2 billion Japanese investors secured in SpaceX's $75 billion IPO in June. Mizuho Securities is managing the Japanese portion. Japan's first-time offerings have fallen to a 14-year low, according to the Nov. 2 reports of the filing.

Anthropic is not alone in tapping equity markets. Meta Platforms is seeking to raise as much as $95 billion from common and preferred stock, and Alphabet is aiming for up to $85 billion in equity financing. Anthropic's offering will test how much appetite exists for a wave of new AI-linked shares.

What comes next

Anthropic publicly filed its prospectus on Oct. 26. The roadshow could start as soon as the week of Nov. 9, with a debut targeted for the week before Thanksgiving, according to the Journal.

The open questions are specific: where the final range lands against the $1.5 trillion to $1.6 trillion the anchors want, how many shares are offered, and whether the Q3 revenue figure in the final prospectus is $16.8 billion or $17.0 billion.