Anthropic brings its mega IPO to Australia’s AI-starved investors

Anthropic will offer shares as part of its blockbuster initial public offering directly to Australian investors, bringing a fresh artificial-intelligence bet to a market still reeling from the high-profile collapse of a data centre start-up’s float.

The IPO will be accessible to local retail investors after Anthropic submits a prospectus to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, according to a filing on Monday with the US sharemarket regulator. The number of shares on offer will be disclosed in a later filing.

Investors are expecting a fair valuation of between $US1.4 trillion and $US1.75 trillion ($2 trillion and $2.5 trillion), people familiar with the matter have said.

The Australian offering will give the Claude chatbot maker exposure to Australia’s $4.8 trillion superannuation industry as well as a retail investor base starved for an opportunity to buy into a major company at the heart of the AI trade.

The collapse of Firmus’s IPO, which would have ranked among this market’s largest ever listings, dealt a blow to sentiment after it fell apart as demand from international investors failed to materialise.

“Many Australian investors will be keen to participate in Anthropic’s IPO,” according to Cameron Gleeson, head of investment strategy at Betashares. “Anthropic is a very different proposition to Firmus. Anthropic is selling a product that customers are already paying for and only increasing their spending on.”

Australia is one of a few countries around the world where retail investors are able to directly buy into the Anthropic IPO.

Compared with the technology-heavy markets across North Asia and the US, Australia lacks the same semiconductor or hyperscaler companies that have been the focus of sharemarkets in recent months. The shortage of exposure helped support SpaceX’s local offering this year, with retail investors driving demand.

Australia is one of a few countries around the world, along with Japan, Canada and parts of Europe, where retail investors are able to directly buy into the Anthropic IPO.

Professional and sophisticated investors will be able to participate in Anthropic’s US offering directly without having to wait for an Australian regulatory filing, according to Anthropic’s prospectus.

Super funds and other large institutional investors fall into the professional category. Sophisticated investors include individuals with net assets of at least $2.5 million or gross income of at least $250,000 per year.

Among Anthropic’s 22 underwriters, Macquarie’s capital-raising arm is expected to lead the local offering. CommSec will lead retail marketing, the Australian Financial Review reported, citing people briefed on the matter.

CommSec also handled SpaceX’s Australian retail marketing this year. The brokerage at the time said it received more than 28,000 applications – a record. It didn’t say how many shares were eventually allotted to its clients.

Anthropic’s offering “should draw strong local interest after years of the biggest names in AI growing behind closed doors,” said Josh Gilbert, lead analyst for Asia Pacific at eToro in Sydney.

While Firmus asked investors to back an expansion story leaning heavily on debt, “Anthropic’s numbers put it on a much firmer footing, and it offers something public markets have barely had: direct exposure to a frontier model maker.”

Bloomberg

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