Anthropic’s $1.5T IPO Meets a Buyers’ Strike as the AI Market Gets Rocky

Potential investors are seeking a lower valuation for Anthropic before its initial public offering (IPO) roadshow, with some major investors reportedly pushing for a price closer to $1 trillion rather than the discussed $1.5 trillion. The roadshow, a series of investor meetings before pricing, had been expected for the week of November 9, but investors may now delay a November listing. The Kobeissi Letter’s @KobeissiLetter reported on November 6, 2026, that major investors were “increasingly skeptical” the IPO could proceed at the expected $1.5 trillion valuation after a market drop.

Price is not the only sticking point. Anthropic may also need a larger discount because of its quarterly losses and large partner commitments, according to Reuters. Its updated S-1, the IPO registration statement, also left October revenue blank, leaving investors without a figure they reportedly want to assess whether growth has recovered. Third-quarter revenue rose 46.7% from Q2, slowing from 144.2% a quarter earlier, while growth had previously rebounded to 132% in Q1 2026 from 48% in Q4 2025.

Executives and advisers reportedly plan to review the IPO in the coming days, with Anthropic able to delay or shrink the deal. The company held $146.6 billion in cash on September 30. The review follows a Thursday in which US stocks lost about $2 trillion in the first trading hour. Truist Advisory Services chief investment officer Keith Lerner said tech had trailed the S&P 500 by 10.7% in a month, the most extreme one-month gap since May 2002, and added: “We are now seeing something of a buyers’ strike in tech.”

The pricing debate extends beyond Anthropic’s shareholders. New York Angels’ Bob Peck sees the IPO price as a yardstick for $2 trillion to $4 trillion cloud giants, while some investors want Anthropic’s price before backing OpenAI, the Financial Times reported. Retail participation could also be strong, as Reuters noted, although SpaceX shed 20% from its peak within a week of its June debut.

If Anthropic provides the missing October revenue figure before the roadshow, investors will have another metric for evaluating the company. Without it, the IPO will test how a frontier AI lab can be priced during a tech selloff as institutional and retail buyers weigh growth, losses, partner commitments and a valuation that has become a point of contention.