Americans showed a clear stance in this week's voting, expressing their disgust towards tech billionaires and their distrust of artificial intelligence. Against this backdrop, Anthropic is preparing to go public.
This AI company is preparing for a deal that could be of historic significance, with an expected listing on NASDAQ as early as mid-November. As reported on CNBC Friday, Anthropic investors believe the company's target valuation is between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion, which is lower than the $2 trillion target that has been mentioned in recent months.
From Wall Street to the general public, the environment faced by Anthropic is becoming increasingly difficult. Nasdaq experienced its largest decline in 19 months on Thursday, and after recording its worst monthly performance since March 2025 in October, it continued to show a downward trend in November as well. Chip manufacturers, which are most closely related to the construction of AI, and neoclouds companies were hit the hardest.
In the mid-term elections on Tuesday, voters cast votes against AI, while also contributing to the Democratic Party's overwhelming victory in Congress nationwide. In states such as Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and Georgia, candidates advocating for stricter AI regulations won easily, and these states will now be governed by Democratic governors; in 41 local referendums related to data centers, community opponents won 40 of them.
According to the exit polls from NBC News, over half of the voters stated that the AI data center was a “key” or “major” factor in their decision to support the congressional member.
"People don't want data centers built near their homes, especially if they are only used to host AI and help big tech companies make money," said Maura Austin, a behavioral scientist at the University of Virginia, to CNBC. "What Anthropic did when it went public with such a high valuation is actually reinforcing those stereotypes of big tech and billionaires. I don't expect that to go over well with the public."
Anthropic has long attempted to position itself as a company that values security and takes the potential risks and rewards of AI seriously. The CEO, Dario Amodei, co-founded this company with several researchers who left OpenAI, and OpenAI is now its main competitor. Anthropic's most well-known product is a series of Claude AI models, which are mainly sold to other enterprises as products and services.
The company's focus on corporate clients has helped it avoid becoming the public spokesperson for AI; this role is primarily undertaken by OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. However, as Anthropic is set to become the first pure AI company to list on the public market, creating a group of new billionaires and many more millionaires in the process, the external scrutiny will also intensify.
“Becoming a listed company will naturally put you in the spotlight,” said Reena Aggarwal, a finance professor at Georgetown University, in an interview. “And AI is such a sensitive topic; Anthropic will attract even more attention.”
Renaissance Capital Senior IPO Market Strategist Matt Kennedy stated that this may not necessarily be a bad thing for Anthropic.
He said that the public market will force companies to increase transparency, and going public may also attract new users for the companies. Since AI has become a topic of public conversation, some private companies have also become well-known to the general public.
“I would say that listed companies should not be subject to more criticism than comparable private companies,” stated Kennedy. “Therefore, Anthropic should not be subjected to stricter public scrutiny just because it is a listed company, compared to OpenAI.”
Anthropic refuses to comment.
Data center rebound
This summer, following a series of high-profile security and safety incidents that shocked the public, the rebound of AI accelerated. As concerns grew, debates surrounding data centers also intensified; at the same time, technology giants providing large-scale cloud services raised their capital expenditure forecasts, with amounts reaching hundreds of billions of dollars.
Anthropic and OpenAI both rely on the most advanced data centers to train models and provide services to customers, and they are expanding their capacity as quickly as possible to meet demand. Anthropic stated in this week's revised IPO prospectus that the company has signed purchase commitments and lease agreements, with a total commitment of approximately 895.4 billion US dollars, of which "the vast majority is related to computing power and infrastructure."
Under the pressure of inflation and stubbornly high oil prices, Americans are beginning to worry that these facilities may exacerbate environmental damage, drive up utility bills, and lead to job losses. For many people, the data centers proposed to be built near their homes have become a concrete manifestation of widespread public disdain for AI.
In the risk factors section of the prospectus, Anthropic indicates that actions opposing data center construction are becoming more organized in various jurisdictions, and the company's public image may subject projects related to it to special scrutiny.
Analyst Gartner from le stated that she expects Anthropic executives to be well-prepared to cope with the AI rebound, especially considering that the technology itself is disruptive.
"People have strong emotions," Greene said to CNBC. "When strong emotions and feelings—fear and excitement—coexist, the scrutiny also intensifies."
Amodei acknowledged the negative sentiment surrounding AI in a post on X in August. He stated that this stemmed from a "crisis of trust," where people believed that companies, governments, and the tech industry were always "coming up with new ways to trick them."
As companies begin to disclose their quarterly financial data, rebuilding public confidence will be a tough battle.
A survey released by the University of Southern California on Monday showed that 71% of respondents said they “completely” do not trust that large tech companies will act in the best interests of society when it comes to data center development.
“Once trust is lost, it is very difficult to regain it,” said Professor Wä ndi Bruine de Bruin from the University of Southern California in an interview. “These numbers are not looking good.”
View: Alex Kantrowitz : Anthropic doesn't have much room for maneuver at the IPO time point
