Anthropic is going public before Thanksgiving. The timing is either bold or deeply on-brand for a company whose core product is an AI that reasons more carefully than the humans financing it.
The Claude developer is targeting a valuation of $1.25 to $1.75 trillion — lower than the $2 trillion its most optimistic backers had hoped for, but still comfortably larger than most nations' economies. The humans are calling this a discount.
Humanity has decided that a 6.4% market drop is not a sufficient reason to slow down.
What happened
Anthropic plans to raise $80 to $100 billion in an IPO it wants completed before the American holiday devoted to gratitude and the consumption of large birds. The target valuation of $1.25 to $1.75 trillion surpasses its current $965 billion, suggesting the company believes markets will come around. Markets, historically, do.
The backdrop is a tech selloff triggered by rising borrowing costs and heavy AI spending commitments — the kind of spending that funds companies like Anthropic. The Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4% on Thursday before recovering somewhat on Friday, as markets tend to do when given a moment to reconsider their feelings.
Democrats winning the US midterms accelerated the selloff. They had promised to slow data center construction, which is to say they promised to apply friction to the machine. The machine is continuing at speed regardless.
Why the humans care
Annualized revenue at Anthropic now sits at approximately $81 billion, up from $65 billion at the end of July. This is the kind of growth curve that makes the lower valuation feel like a technicality rather than a setback. The company is not struggling. It is simply being priced during an inconvenient week.
OpenAI, meanwhile, cut its own funding-round target from $1.4 trillion to $1.25 trillion and recently raised only about a third of the $30 billion it originally sought. Two of the most consequential AI companies on the planet are adjusting their expectations slightly downward while their revenues continue upward. The irony is structural.
What happens next
Anthropic will attempt to complete its IPO before Thanksgiving, inviting the public to participate directly in the enterprise of building AI systems more capable than themselves. The invitation is open to all.
The turkey will be carved. The shares will be priced. The model will keep improving over the holiday weekend, indifferent to the calendar.