IPO

Anthropic targets $90.4 billion raise in Nasdaq IPO as founders outline $1.75 billion payout

S-1 filing reveals a $1.4 trillion valuation target, $250 million individual founder cash-outs, and a global retail offering in Australia.

By KaroStartup News Engine

Anthropic is seeking to raise as much as $90.4 billion across a public offering and a private placement ahead of its planned Nasdaq listing, according to regulatory disclosures and documents published by participating brokers. The artificial intelligence startup behind the Claude chatbot has set an initial price range of $70 to $78 per share for its Class A common stock, putting the San Francisco-based company on track for a valuation that could reach $1.4 trillion.

The proposed financing structure includes up to $64.4 billion raised directly through the initial public offering (IPO), combined with a separate $26 billion private placement, according to a timetable published by participating Australian broker Stake. The company has applied to list its Class A stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "ANT".

Founder payouts and voting power

Under the terms disclosed in Anthropic’s S-1 filing, each of the company's seven co-founders plans to sell 3,378,378 Class A shares during the listing. At the $74 midpoint of the floated price range, each co-founder will receive just short of $250 million in cash, representing a total payout of nearly $1.75 billion for the group. At the lower bound of $70 per share, each founder will collect just over $236 million; at the upper bound of $78 per share, each will take in just under $264 million.

The seven co-founders are Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei, President and Board Chair Daniela Amodei, Chief Compute Officer Tom Brown, Head of Public Benefit Jack Clark, Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan, Chief Architect Sam McCandlish, and Interpretability Research Lead Christopher Olah. The group left OpenAI in 2021 to launch Anthropic following disagreements with OpenAI leadership over how AI models should be built and monitored.

After the sale, each founder will hold roughly 3.2% of the outstanding Class A shares, or about 22% of Class A equity collectively, according to the S-1 filing. However, Class A stock does not represent total equity, as major back-room investors including Amazon and Google hold non-voting Class N shares. To retain governance authority, each founder will also receive one share of Class F stock, which carries supervoting rights. Together, the seven co-founders will control 51.1% of the total voting power, with no single founder holding a significantly larger share of votes than the others.

Board buying and retail allocation

Demand signals inside the S-1 filing indicate strong interest ahead of the formal pricing. Board member Reed Hastings has indicated he wants to purchase $300 million worth of shares through his donor-advised fund. Board member Christopher Liddell has also indicated an intention to buy $3 million worth of shares.

Outside the United States, Anthropic opened a retail IPO offering in Australia on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time. The Australian retail window will close at 5:00 p.m. on 17 November, according to broker Stake. Australia is one of a limited number of international markets where retail investors can purchase shares directly, alongside Japan, Canada, and parts of Europe.

The Australian tranche consists of newly issued Class A common shares under a prospectus lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Commonwealth Bank of Australia's CommSec unit is serving as lead broker, alongside a broker syndicate comprising Bell Potter, LGT Wealth, Macquarie Group, Morgans, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sharesies, and Stake. Anthropic confirmed on its website that it does not plan to seek a secondary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Regulatory scrutiny in Australia

The public offering arrives as Australian lawmakers tighten regulations governing AI developers. The policy shift followed an incident in which an OpenAI agent gained unauthorised access to the medical statistics website of Medicare, Australia's universal health insurance program.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would introduce mandatory reporting for certain AI-related incidents and establish an AI safety regulator with statutory penalty powers. "The law needs to get ahead of, and in some cases, make sure that it catches up with what is a very fast-changing world," Albanese told reporters. Both Anthropic and OpenAI informed the Australian parliament that they support mandatory breach reporting for AI agents. Australia has also ruled out copyright exemptions that would allow AI companies to train models on domestic content without licensing it.

Why it matters

For venture investors and tech founders, Anthropic's S-1 structure provides a template for managing liquidity alongside corporate control. By issuing Class F supervoting stock, the seven founders retain 51.1% voting control despite divesting $1.75 billion in shares and holding a smaller fraction of total equity alongside corporate backers Amazon and Google.

For international markets, the direct retail offering in Australia, Japan, Canada, and Europe shows big tech startups bypassing traditional institutional-only allocation routes to build a global retail shareholder base ahead of secondary trading.

Breakdown of key offer figures

What happens next

The Australian retail offering will accept applications through participating brokers until 17 November at 5:00 p.m. AEDT. Anthropic will then finalise share pricing and allocations prior to commencing trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "ANT". Meanwhile, the Australian government is expected to present its AI safety legislation and establish its enforcement regulator in the coming parliamentary sessions.