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Anthropic is preparing a Nasdaq listing, reportedly targeting mid-November, with investors now eyeing a valuation of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion—down from earlier talk of $2 trillion. The timing follows a steep Nasdaq selloff and midterm election results in which candidates favoring stricter AI regulation won in several states, and local communities rejected data center proposals in 40 of 41 ballot measures.
A visit to Unitree's Hangzhou factory revealed that most actuator production still relies on human workers using traditional winding machines, with only one or two automated lines in operation. Unitree's own IPO prospectus describes its viral robot-assembly video as a pilot project, noting assembly is 'currently mainly manual.' Financial filings show the company's total machinery was valued at roughly $1.7 million despite producing nearly 32,000 robots in 2025, implying about $50 of equipment per robot.
OpenAI has secured $11 billion in a new funding round that values the company at $1.25 trillion, according to Bloomberg sources. The round hasn't closed yet and is expected to reach roughly $20 billion in the coming weeks, falling short of the $30 billion target Bloomberg reported OpenAI was pursuing in September.
Investors in Anthropic now doubt the AI company can reach even a $1.5 trillion valuation at IPO, down from earlier talk of $2 trillion, according to people who spoke to CNBC. One investor called $1.5 trillion a 'stretch' and suggested $1 trillion to $1.25 trillion is more realistic, though figures could shift with market conditions. Anthropic, which was privately valued at $965 billion in May, declined to comment and is expected to begin its IPO roadshow next week under the ticker ANT.
OpenAI has closed a new funding round valuing the company at $1.25 trillion, raising roughly $11 billion so far, according to Bloomberg. The company is reportedly still seeking additional investment that could push the total to $20 billion, short of an earlier target of $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation.
Prospective investors in Anthropic's planned IPO are now discussing a valuation of $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion, down sharply from $1.4-1.5 trillion just days earlier and from $2 trillion floated in early October, Bloomberg reported. The repricing followed a 6.4% Nasdaq 100 plunge that erased roughly $2.3 trillion in market value, and the Wall Street Journal reported some major prospective investors want an even lower price, with one suggesting near $1 trillion. Anthropic declined to comment.
Payments firm Ramp reports that while AI token usage kept rising, actual spending on AI services grew just 1.5% combined across August and September, down sharply from 42% growth in July alone. Ramp's lead economist Ara Kharazian said the slowdown is concentrated among the top 1% of spenders, who have dipped slightly below the roughly $10,000-per-employee monthly spending they hit over the summer.
Investors are reportedly weighing bids that would value Anthropic as low as $1.1 trillion, down sharply from the roughly $2 trillion figure floated when the company filed to go public before the midterm elections. The shift follows a broad market selloff that erased $2.3 trillion in value, amid voter backlash against tech companies and data center expansion, and Anthropic's reported $80 billion-plus loss in the first half of 2026.
Several major investors have voiced skepticism that Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, could command a $1.5 trillion valuation in a future IPO. These investors suggest the company may need to settle for a notably lower valuation than that figure when it eventually goes public.
Anthropic's updated S-1 filing, which extends financial disclosures through September 30th, shows quarterly revenue rising to $17 billion from $11.5 billion while operating losses widened. Compute costs consumed 58% of revenue in the latest quarter, up from 48% previously, and the company's revenue-per-dollar-of-compute ratio fell to 1.72x after peaking above 2x. The filing attributes part of the jump to $5 billion in short-term compute commitments that cost more than multi-year deals.
In a revised S-1A filed with the SEC, Anthropic disclosed that internal projections about future models, not its current ones, suggest it could soon meet its own Responsible Scaling Policy definition of 'dramatically accelerated progress attributable to AI.' The company said none of its existing models have crossed that threshold and that it is weighing updates to its scaling policy to keep humans in control of frontier model development. The disclosure accompanies Anthropic's planned Nasdaq listing under the ticker ANT, following an initial S-1 filed October 26 and earlier reports of a roughly $2 trillion valuation target.
Anthropic's amended S-1 filing discloses personnel expenses exceeding $1.7 billion for July through September, averaging roughly $107,300 per employee per month across its 5,300-person workforce. Most of that figure, $1.1 billion, reflects stock-based compensation rather than cash pay. Despite the size of the number, personnel costs now account for about 15% of Anthropic's $33.2 billion in revenue for the first nine months of 2026, down sharply from 2023 when wage spending more than doubled revenue.