Anthropic IPO faces investor pressure for lower valuation: Targeted valuation drops to $1.5 trillion, with near-$900 billion in compute capacity commitments.

Beating AI News: As tech stocks plunged last week, large institutional investors planning to participate in Anthropic’s IPO have begun demanding a lower valuation, targeting a range of $1.5 trillion to $1.6 trillion. Investors are concerned about overheating in AI investments, headwinds in data center construction, and delayed profit realization from massive computing power outlays. Anthropic has not yet finalized its valuation or share count for the offering, and plans to launch its roadshow as early as next week, targeting a listing in the week of November 16. Some investors are pushing for conservative pricing to leave room for the stock to rise on its first day of trading. On November 2, Anthropic filed an updated S-1/A registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosing total contracted commitments for computing power and infrastructure of approximately $895.4 billion, covering cloud computing procurement, data centers, equipment leasing, and related areas. Of that total, around $447.5 billion is expected to be incurred by the end of 2030, with most of the remainder extending through 2045. Over the next 12 months alone, the company faces approximately $69.8 billion in contractual payment obligations. Anthropic’s third-quarter revenue hit $16.956 billion, rising around 47% quarter-over-quarter, though its second-quarter quarter-over-quarter growth rate had reached 144%. Operating profit shifted from a $974 million gain in Q2 to a $567 million loss in Q3. The company attributed the Q3 loss to several factors: roughly $5 billion in computing power sourced from pricier short-term contracts, about $2 billion in non-cash employee donation matching expenses, and around $6 billion in revenue growth offset by new model price cuts and client agreement discounts.