Anthropic’s IPO slips to a listing just before midterms

Anthropic now expects to start marketing its IPO in mid-October at the earliest and to finish the listing a few days before the U.S. midterm elections in November, people familiar with the matter said on September 4, CNBC reported. Two of them said the public prospectus could have come as early as the following week. It is now expected in late September, and the people cautioned that the plans, including the timing, could still change.

The public filing date has now moved twice. In August, Anthropic was expected to file publicly as soon as the end of that month. The company submitted its draft S-1 to the SEC confidentially on June 1. Under the JOBS Act, a company that files this way keeps its detailed financials private while the SEC reviews the draft, then has to make the document public at least 15 days before the roadshow, the round of investor meetings that markets the offering. A late-September filing leaves room for that gap ahead of a mid-October start.

The size of the deal explains the attention. Some investors have said the listing could be worth $2 trillion, which would put it among the largest IPOs ever attempted. In its private Series H on May 28, Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation. SpaceX went public in June at a record $1.77 trillion valuation, and OpenAI may list around the same time as Anthropic.

One step comes before the prospectus. Anthropic wants to finalize a $15 billion revolving credit facility, and once that is done, analysts, including those at banks involved in the financing, are expected to meet with the company, one person said. Bloomberg News had earlier reported that Anthropic was in talks to expand the facility to $15 billion. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citi are among the banks working on the offering.

Companies usually leave a few weeks between those analyst meetings and the public prospectus. The same person said Anthropic’s window is expected to be shorter because analysts already know the company well.