Key points
- Anthropic's investors are discussing setting its IPO valuation at $1.5 trillion.
- Although quarterly revenue reached $16.8 billion, revenue growth is slowing.
- Before listing, the potential valuation gap could reach $500 billion.
Anthropic’s potential IPO valuation is facing a reassessment of $500 billion. Some investors are questioning whether the developer of Claude can sustain its unusually strong revenue growth before its planned stock market debut in November.
According to a Reuters report on October 15, following a private pitch in San Francisco, existing and potential investors discussed valuing Anthropic at approximately $1.5 trillion.
Anthropic's revenue reached $16.8 billion, but growth has slowed.
Anthropic disclosed revenue of $16.8 billion in the third quarter, $11.6 billion in the second quarter, and approximately $4.7 billion in the first quarter.
This represents an increase of $5.2 billion in a single quarter, indicating continued market demand for Claude and its enterprise-grade AI products.
However, the pace of expansion has clearly slowed.
Revenue increased by approximately 147% from the first quarter to the second quarter, and by 45% from the second quarter to the third quarter.
This slowdown does not mean Anthropic's business is shrinking. On the contrary, it reflects that as revenue scales up, maintaining extremely high percentage growth rates becomes more challenging.
Anthropic also stated that the company achieved adjusted profitability in the third quarter, indicating improved operational performance despite high development costs.
Why investors are questioning Anthropic's $2 trillion valuation
The core of the debate lies in how much investors should pay for future growth.
At a $2 trillion valuation, based on an annualized revenue of $67.2 billion from the $16.8 billion in third-quarter revenue, Anthropic’s valuation is approximately 29.8 times its revenue. At a $1.5 trillion valuation, this multiple would decrease to approximately 22.3 times.
The text notes that these figures are simplified valuation comparisons and not traditional price-to-sales ratios based on full-year revenue.
The company also faces significant infrastructure demands.
Its previously disclosed total computing expenditure for 2025 was approximately $7.3 billion, exceeding its annual revenue of $4.6 billion.
Anthropic’s expansion plan also includes substantial investments in chips and cloud infrastructure, including a potential $42 billion financing arrangement that may involve Broadcom.
Therefore, investors must balance rapid sales growth with the capital required for ongoing development and operation of advanced AI models.
Will Anthropic's IPO repricing affect other AI stocks?
The global technology fund recently recorded $4.75 billion in outflows, indicating that investors are becoming more cautious in their choices regarding AI exposure.
The company’s future IPO could serve as an important test of how public markets value AI developers, and how that valuation compares to that of chipmakers and cloud service providers that supply the underlying infrastructure.
A lower valuation does not necessarily mean that demand for artificial intelligence is collapsing. Instead, it may reflect more conservative investor assumptions about future growth, competition, and profitability.
Ethan Mercer
Ethan Mercer is a financial journalist covering cryptocurrency, stocks, and the global economy. He studied economics and finance before entering the field of market reporting, with a particular focus on Bitcoin, stocks, monetary policy, and investor sentiment. His reporting emphasizes explaining daily market fluctuations and the broader trends behind them.