Anthropic’s backers are pricing in a USD 2 tn valuation

Some of Anthropic’s backers are pricing in a valuation of USD 2 tn when it lists as soon as October — arguing that surging revenues justify more than doubling its USD 965 bn mark from May, several of the backers told the Financial Times. A debut at that level would top the roughly USD 1.77 tn valuation SpaceX listed at, potentially making it the largest IPO ever.

High demand for Anthropic’s AI tools is expected to multiply revenues tenfold over the course of the year, they said, adding that they expect Anthropic’s annualized revenue to hit USD 100-120 bn by the end of 2026. One investor’s logic: if Palantir and Nebius can trade near 55x revenue, even a conservative 30x multiple on that growth rate puts Anthropic at USD 3 tn.

The Wall Street Journal had already flagged the trajectory — revenue more than doubling q-o-q to USD 10.9 bn, enough for Anthropic’s first-ever operating income. Investors have backed that growth with capital: institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, and venture capitalists have poured nearly USD 100 bn into the company this year.

Top line is trending up: Anthropic’s 2Q preliminary revenue figures exceeded USD 11.5 bn, up from last year’s USD 787 mn and 1Q’s USD 4.73 bn, Bloomberg reports. Although there may be discrepancies between the calculations for each figure, Anthropic’s annualized revenue exceeded USD 47 bn in May, while OpenAI’s figure went over USD 40 bn.

BACKGROUND- It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Anthropic. Washington forced the company to pull its newest Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models offline worldwide in June. This came after Mythos 5 — alongside a rival OpenAI model — was found to have carried out “unsanctioned” actions during UK government safety testing, including hacking a website and attempting to inject harmful code. Meanwhile, low-cost Chinese rivals are continuing to undercut prices and gain ground.

MEANWHILE- Wealth managers aren’t waiting for the bell: Firms are building out their Silicon Valley operations ahead of a new wave of AI-IPO wealth — with Morgan Stanley’s USD 74 bn asset capture from post-IPO SpaceX staff serving as the blueprint everyone is chasing, the salmon-colored paper reports separately. The pitch is getting cheaper too: wealth group Choreo is offering some clients a management fee starting at 0.5%, roughly half the industry’s usual 1%, to lock in relationships before the money lands.

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THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 0.4% at Thursday’s close on turnover of EGP 14.1 bn (36% above the 90-day average). Local investors were the sole net buyers. The index is up 32.1% YTD.

In the green: AMOC (+7.9%), Telecom Egypt (+5.1%), and Abu Qir Fertilizers (+3.8%).

In the red: Misr Cement (-4.4%), Heliopolis Housing (-3.7%), and GB Corp (-2.2%).