Anthropic, the company behind AI chatbot Claude, has fired the starting gun on a stock market listing in New York that could see it valued at more than $1trillion (£740billion). Investors think appetite for its shares could mean it far exceeds that. The possible price tag is even more staggering as San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded just five years ago.
Yet it is far from alone in AI-related firms that have attracted colossal valuations, given the expected growth in the sector. Rival OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, was most recently valued at $852billion (£632billion). Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX has also revealed plans to list on the US stock market. As well as Musk's artificial intelligence firm xAI, SpaceX also makes rockets and satellite internet service Starlink. The firm's stock market listing could make Musk, who is already the world's richest person, a trillionaire.
Not to be outdone, other US tech titans are also rushing to invest heavily in AI. Alphabet, the owner of Google, has announced plans to raise around £60billion to fund an aggressive expansion. Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said it marked a 'clear sign that the AI arms race is moving into a more capital-hungry phase'. He added: 'Alphabet is certainly spending from a position of strength, not distress.'
The potential flurry of stock market listings could catapult the fortunes of a small group of executives running this new wave of AI mega-firms. Anthropic's seven co-founders are set for a potential mega-bucks windfall under the planned stock market listing. They include brother and sister Dario and Daniela Amodei. Dario is the firm's chief executive and Daniela its president. Forbes estimated Anthropic's small group of founders own just over 1.6% of the company, so could end up being worth a combined £118billion.
Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, an advisory service, said Anthropic was 'clearly keen to capitalise on mega-enthusiasm washing through markets for artificial intelligence investments'. She added: 'It's hot on the heels of SpaceX's filing, and there are expectations that OpenAI will also go public pretty soon. Anthropic may attract particularly strong investor demand because it has built a reputation as one of the more enterprise-focused and safety-conscious AI firms.'
She added: 'The listings are set to intensify excitement around AI, but they may also fuel concerns that parts of the market may be entering bubble territory. There are clear echoes of the dot.com era, when soaring optimism around the internet pushed technology stocks to dizzying heights before confidence collapsed as funding conditions tightened.'
