Anthropic’s IPO Pricing Unveiled: Top Valuation Reaches $1.4 Trillion, $600 Billion Lower Than the Most Optimistic Projections

Image credit: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Anthropic confirmed its IPO pricing range on Tuesday: $70 to $78 per share, which corresponds to a maximum $1.4 trillion valuation. This price level will still likely make it one of the largest IPOs in history. Anthropic is the company behind Claude, and a direct competitor to OpenAI.

Yet the final figure falls short of earlier expectations. Reuters noted that Anthropic's IPO was once projected to reach a maximum valuation of $2 trillion. The new $1.4 trillion upper cap leaves a $600 billion gap from that prior peak. OpenAI hit a $1.25 trillion valuation last week, meaning Anthropic's new pricing ceiling is $150 billion higher than that number.

The Wall Street Journal cited sources familiar with the matter saying Anthropic targets to let its shares start trading next Thursday or Friday. Now that the pricing range and trading timeline are both public, the next step is to see how the market receives the offering. The earlier $2 trillion expectation was like a very generously drawn check, which has now been cashed in at $1.4 trillion. Looking at the numbers alone, the market is far from cold — it is just not as overheated as it was at the peak of the most bullish forecasts.

For ordinary users, IPO prices and valuations feel very distant from their daily use of the products. This update acts more like a clear signal: the company behind Claude is heading for public trading, and its capital competition with OpenAI will be laid bare in public earnings reports and share price fluctuations. Developers care about model capabilities, while the capital market focuses on growth and profitability — these two separate sets of priorities will operate in parallel moving forward.

Original article: The Verge