Anthropic Investors Question Whether Roadshow Can Start Next Week, Reuters Reports, as October Revenue Stays Blank in S-1

Since Tuesday's Nov. 3 midterms, the question around Anthropic's IPO has moved from how high the price goes to whether the schedule holds at all.

Potential investors are raising doubts about whether Anthropic can launch its roadshow next week in time for a November listing, people familiar with the investor discussions told Reuters on Thursday. Anthropic, led by CEO Dario Amodei, declined to comment.

The roadshow was initially expected to begin the week of Nov. 9, with pricing the following week. CNBC reports the company is likely targeting a mid-November Nasdaq debut.

The valuation and the missing number

Investors are pushing for a more attractive valuation before they commit, according to the people who spoke to Reuters. Some see the recently discussed $1.5 trillion figure as the high end of expectations. They also said Anthropic may have to offer a bigger discount to secure commitments.

CNBC reported Friday that Anthropic investors now see the company aiming for $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, down from the $2 trillion floated in recent months. Bloomberg reported that some investors are weighing bids as low as $1.1 trillion.

One gap stands out. Anthropic left its October revenue figure blank in the updated S-1. Two of the people told Reuters investors are waiting on that number to judge whether growth has recovered after a slowdown in recent months.

Those people also pointed to Anthropic's record of quarterly losses and the large commitments it has made to partners in the AI buildout. Futurism, citing Bloomberg, puts the company's first-half 2026 loss at more than $80 billion. Anthropic has not commented on that figure in anything we have seen.

A market already sliding

The backdrop is ugly. The Nasdaq on Thursday had its steepest drop in 19 months, and it started November down after October, its worst month since March 2025, CNBC reports. Chipmakers and neoclouds, the companies most tied to the AI buildout, took the hardest hits. Futurism said Thursday's selloff wiped out a record $2.3 trillion in market value.

Reuters's sources said a delay would likely fuel more worry about the health of the AI sector. It could also weigh on a broader market heavily weighted toward large tech firms, they said, if Anthropic looks like it is struggling to raise money.

The voters' verdict

The political signal is blunt. CNBC counted voters siding against data center projects in 40 of 41 local ballot measures. An NBC News exit poll found more than half of voters called AI data centers a "crucial" or "major factor" in their vote for Congress.

Democrats who ran for tougher AI rules won governorships in Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Georgia, CNBC reports. Reuters reports Democrats are already preparing a flood of AI and data center legislation for when they take control of Congress in January.

This was not a one-party story before Election Day. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered the withholding of new data center permits until an audit of grid risks is complete, saying "Texans come first." His Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa, called the move an "election year stunt." In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul's July executive order pauses large data centers of 50 megawatts or more for up to a year.

Anthropic has real exposure in Texas. Its deals there include a $35 billion pact with Lambda for a data center in Nueces County and a $9.1 billion agreement with Riot Platforms for a campus in Rockdale. Its $50 billion Fluidstack partnership covers Texas and New York locations. Bloomberg reported banks are delaying plans to offload part of a $15 billion loan for a Texas project being developed by Nexus Data Centers.

Delay, discount or push ahead

Maura Austin, a University of Virginia behavioral scientist, told CNBC that a sky-high valuation leans into "that big tech, billionaire kind of caricature," and she expects that will not play well with the public. Reena Aggarwal, a Georgetown finance professor, said going public alone puts Anthropic in the limelight, and AI makes it more so.

Not everyone thinks the damage is lasting. Morningstar chief equity strategist Michael Field told Bloomberg the longer-term cost of delaying, both physical and reputational, could hurt the valuation more. If markets hold at current levels, he said, Anthropic will "just get it done at a slightly lower valuation, suck it up and move on."

President Trump keeps his veto pen through the rest of his term, which Futurism notes could limit how far a Democratic Congress gets on AI bills. Congress has history here: a provision to bar states from regulating AI for a decade was stripped from a 2025 budget bill by a 99-1 Senate vote, Politico reports.

The next concrete marker is the week of Nov. 9. Anthropic has not said whether the roadshow starts on schedule, or what its October revenue was.