Institutional-investor interest in Anthropic’s initial public offering is outpacing the early days of SpaceX’s roadshow, according to two people familiar with the companies’ offerings.
The Anthropic roadshow is scheduled to run through next Wednesday, when the AI company is expected to price the $64 billion deal. Anthropic and its investment banks are meeting prospective investors in New York, Boston and San Francisco to gauge demand for the offering, one of the people and a third person familiar with the matter said.
The IPO drew about two times the orders for the shares available by the end of Tuesday, the first day of the roadshow, one of the people said. By the end of Thursday, the book was six times oversubscribed, one other person said. SpaceX’s IPO was two times oversubscribed by the end of its second day of roadshow, Reuters previously reported.
While that single-digit subscription rate would be considered modest for many highly anticipated IPOs, bankers and investors said demand is impressive for the Anthropic offering given the size of the IPO. They expect Anthropic’s order book to grow substantially as the roadshow progresses, reflecting strong early demand, two of the people said.
Details of the IPO, including the demand for shares, could change, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Anthropic declined to comment.
During the roadshow, investors are grappling with two fundamental questions as they assess the offering and the company’s valuation: whether Anthropic can maintain its lead as competitors such as Alphabet’s Google rapidly catch up in developing advanced AI models, and whether its Claude chatbot can maintain its lead beyond coding, in the broader market for knowledge workers.
The questions underscore the challenge of valuing a company whose revenue is growing fast but whose long-term competitive position remains uncertain. Investors are trying to determine whether the AI industry will ultimately be dominated by one or two players or support several leading companies, and whether Anthropic can sustain premium pricing if rivals offer comparable models.
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