Anthropic files for a Nasdaq IPO, warning investors about AI safety and compute risks
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models, publicly filed on Monday to sell shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol “ANT,” the company said. Its prospectus reports $16.29 billion in first-half revenue and an $80.7 billion net loss, and it includes more than 90 pages of risk factors, CNBC reported. The number of shares and the price range have not been set.
The filing: Anthropic filed a Form S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed offering of Class A common stock, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as lead underwriters, the company said. The registration has not yet become effective. Anthropic had filed confidentially in June, CNBC reported.
The numbers: First-half revenue rose from $1.16 billion in the same period a year earlier, CNBC reported. About $72 billion of the first-half loss came from accounting charges tied to changes in the value of convertible notes as the company’s valuation rose, according to CNBC. Anthropic said it had 5,300 employees as of September 30.
The risks: Anthropic said there can be “no assurance” that its safeguards will prove adequate, CNBC reported. The filing warns that its most capable models could help “malicious actors” develop weapons and that its safeguards are “incomplete.” It also lists its reliance on chips made in Taiwan, its dependence on Amazon, Google and Microsoft for computing power, and its dispute with the Pentagon, which labeled the company a supply-chain risk, according to CNBC.
Control: The seven co-founders, including CEO Dario Amodei and President Daniela Amodei, will hold 50.1% of the voting power through an entity called Founder LLC, CNBC reported. Anthropic said in the filing that its governance structure “has no direct public company precedent.”