Anthropic is heading toward the public markets at a moment when American anxiety about artificial intelligence is rising and opposition to new data centers is growing louder. That backlash is expected to be flagged as a key risk factor in the company’s IPO prospectus, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Claude creator has been holding preliminary “test-the-water” meetings with bankers and investors in San Francisco, the people said, asking not to be named because the sessions are confidential. In those meetings, Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao has fielded questions about competition, margin pressure from open-source models, and what might happen if data center construction slows, the sources added.
Anthropic confidentially filed to go public in June, positioning the offering among the largest in history. About two months ago, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which competes with Anthropic through its AI division, raised $85.7 billion including the underwriter option, making it by far the largest offering to date. Investors expect Anthropic could top that figure, with some projecting the company could float at a valuation of roughly $2 trillion, the people said.
Like rival OpenAI, Anthropic is pushing infrastructure partners to build out at warp speed to meet demand for advanced models and new services. Hyperscale cloud providers are spending hundreds of billions of dollars this year on capital expenditures to support data center development and purchase the graphics processing units needed to fill them.
But public sentiment is leaning against them. A Gallup survey published in May found that seven in 10 Americans oppose AI data center construction in their area, with close to half of respondents strongly opposed. Roughly a quarter of those surveyed are in favor, Gallup said.
With midterm elections less than three months away, politicians on both sides of the aisle have been pushing back on data center development, reflecting constituent anger. The issue took center stage in Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, which was won by Rep. Byron Donalds, who has proposed restrictions on data centers in the state. That same day, Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order placing harsh standards on data center development in his state.
Companies are required to list risk factors in their prospectus for investor disclosure and legal protection. SpaceX, in its own risk factors section, stated: “Adverse global macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions may negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.”
For AI labs like Anthropic, compute capacity is directly correlated to revenue. Anthropic, valued at close to $1 trillion in private markets, recently topped a $65 billion annual revenue run rate, as CNBC previously reported. A slowdown in data center expansion could dent that historic growth rate.
CNBC’s Ashley Capoot contributed to this report.
As Anthropic prepares for one of the largest public debuts on record, it will have to navigate rising public opposition and political scrutiny over the data centers that underpin its growth.
