Anthropic IPO Raises Market Liquidity, Hyperscaler Questions into Blockbuster Debut

upcoming IPO. It's very exciting. People are waiting for it. Let's see what happens Let's get the details from our panel. David Sha is with me, co-founder and CEO of open VC, and Evan Schlossman, prl at Neo Stellar. Great to see you So David, let's start with you. You were last year for the SpaceX IPO. And what kind of demand do you expect forhis name? Well, I think it's going to be really interesting to see whether demand will follow a similar pattern as spa X. You know, as the SpaceX IPO proved, t market can support these somewhat mega IPOs 75 billion in the case of SpaceX, about 100 billion rumored. In the case of anthropic, the question is going to be what that does to volatil For context, we're pricing it right now according to the New York Stock Ex Unicorn Index, at about a $1.5 trillion val. Our investors in the secondary market are going to buy into that $2 trillion ultimat IPO price or not will remain to be seen. What do you think here Evan. What are your thoughts as you tbout the big picture and the demand that we may see for anthropic. Yeah it's a great question. I mean, we've seen in the private markets fairly robust demand for leading names such as anthropic AI, others that are sort of driving change, especially on the larger front from private companies. And so when we look at and think David was right, some of these larger valuations, I think there were initially some questions about whether the marketould sustain sort of the larger capital raises. I think we saw proof that it can.e also saw on the private side right over $100 billion being raised by OpenAI, then coming back out for another capital raise. And so we've seen sort ime market's been able to sustain raises for these large market g companies. And I think if you look at the fundamentals right behind OpenAI, if you look at the OpenAI and anthropic, the ent industry, right, the fundament growth that those companies are anthropic, you look at sort of an order of magnitude increase he last year on revenue that, you know, has been reported may approach from an IRR standpoint, $100 billion. It's a pretty unique in the truest sense of the word. Theres that could be sort of approaching those type of growthwth profiles. And in your notes, you wrote about the investor enthusiasmverall for AI companies, saying the ropic Ie investors a new way to participate directly into AI. So it shows that there is an appetite for this. I think about the timing of this, folks. And S-1 was filed in June, where you have some investor meetings now in October. And reportedly, we're going to really see this IPO in November, maybe after the midterms, but before Thanksgiving. What do you think about the timing in the market environment here, David? I think the timing is quite interesting, espy as you saw a bit of a news cycle around AI safety concerns and what that was to do to some of these mega IPOs. Interestingly, we saw that after OpenAI Space and Anthropic made some recent noise AI incidents, their prices actually wen in the secondary market. So investors looking at these names ahead of an IPO are probably thinking that concerns are certainly warranted, but that r the fundamental value of the companies are still there, as Evan was implying. Anthropic run rate revenue approaching nearly 100 billion tear, up from 9 billion last year, is a pretty astounding statistic. Premiums to what we could see. Do you think that's a big possibility, Evan? Or is it too hard to say because we have seen I mean, well,et's look at the SpaceX IPO, for example. Right? We had a 1 went up to 225 went as low as 104. It's at 167 higher than the IPO price. Do you think that we may see as the mega IPOs come in. OpenAI now has been pushed back. So you don't have those folks worrying now they can maybe know. You tell us. Yes.hink't the way I would look at this IPO and really, you know,milar e seen before, is I would look for the bankers to pricend position this IPO in a way that they are looking for it to perform well, you know, and so when you think about anthropic IPO, an IPO of this sort of scale andnitude, the market is really looking for this to perform well in order to open up and sort of broaden the IPO market at large. And so I would expect thers to go to the market and to structure. And, you know, this IPO and the rts ia way that they are looking for, well-performing IPO stock. You know, I was also thinking about who's involved in what's involved, right. You have a potentially enormou valuation. You said maybe bigger than SpaceX, right? A lotolks are saying that, David. Butalsos involved in the found control. And it's my understanding they still will collectively have most of the voting rights. Is that right? That is what we've been hearing. It has not been a factor in similar situations with mega tech IPOs in the past. Investors are looking at foundershat have guided these companies to p tremendous fundamental metrics. And so rewarding Dario and the other, you know, team and leadership for that success seems almost secondature at this point with these big IPOs. How worried are about the CapEx spend or demand falling off here at this poin Because AI growth and build out is really contributing soh to GDP here. Evan, and just some final thoughts o anthropic IPO partick this timing in November seems like it's the correct time and it willctually happen at that time? When we look at the CapExd about this before vantage points into what's happening here. So if you look at the hyperscale earnings calls, they not only provide sort of an underlying view of what they're seeing from end customer demand, but roadmaps as well if you look over the past few quarters, few years, at this point, you're sescalating trends in terms of CapEx, and that's coming from an increase in acceleration in the amount of AI and AI compute that customers are needing. And so by all accounts, when you look at those trends, we're actually seeing that the AI usage and therefore need f compute is accelerating. And so we are seeing that CapEx spend going towards compute for AI is still constrained very muchthe supply side at the market. In terms of the timing, I think if you look at November by, you know, some reports, you'ing that that may they may wait, maybe I'll share a bit more about Q3 financials, which I ts we've talked about the growth of this company, right? If you look at a company that' growing from an IRR of around 9 million, 9 billion, excuse me, to anywhere close to 100 billion by the end of the year, that is astronomical growth rate for a public company, especially at that scale and order of mae. And so the more sort of financials and more they can show a track record of continuing this accelerated growth really proves the market, right. That that's sort of the path that they are on and the trajectory there. I think you also have to look at the underlying models that just came out with a great model and opus 5.5. Andthere may be a few reasons why they were waiting to November there. But I wouect when you, you know, circling back when you look at the CapEx, I think we're still going to be especially, you know, the IPO in November in a very much demand cined market for compute and CapEx. And while so much of this is still unclear, there's still some concerns about the resistance to shutdown existential AI risks. Someat language that was put into this. So we'll have to get some more details as it develops. It's great to see you both. We'll have this convers again as we get closer. you, David Shapiro and Evan Schlo thank you both ver