The story behind the cartoon
Major investors are increasingly skeptical that Anthropic's blockbuster IPO can proceed at its expected $1.5 trillion valuation, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday evening, after a deep market selloff tied to the unwinding of AI bets. Three major investors who plan to participate in the offering told the Journal the valuation will likely need to come down, with one saying it could be closer to $1 trillion.
Anthropic had been aiming to stage the IPO the week before Thanksgiving and raise up to $100 billion at around $1.5 trillion, which would have been the largest offering of all time. The Nasdaq Composite shed $2.5 trillion in value on Thursday, two days after midterm elections swept a bloc of AI skeptics into power and passed moratoriums that could slow America's data-center buildout. Anthropic's executives and advisers are expected to meet in the next few days to discuss the IPO plans.
Even if the market bounces back, one investor told the Journal, it could be a challenge to convince institutional investors just burned in the selloff to take a big risk on the AI sector again. The company could also raise less money than anticipated; it held $146.6 billion in cash as of September 30. The Journal also reported that OpenAI has raised less than half of the $30 billion it targeted for its latest round — $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation.
The joke is the pitch landing on burned buyers: Merv the earnest roadshow salesman holds up the giant $1.5T tag while the singed, bandaged investors back away and one counters with a small $1T? card — the biggest IPO ever, offered to the very people who just lost $2.5 trillion in a day.
THE AI TRADE JUST LOST $2.3 TRILLION IN A DAY
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