Anthropic eyes Australian retail slice as Nasdaq listing looms

Anthropic wants Australian punters in on its blockbuster listing. The Claude maker, which filed for a US IPO last week, is expected to fold an Australian retail share offer into the prospectus it lodges with the country's corporate regulator, according to Commonwealth Bank of Australia's broking arm.

Commonwealth Securities — CommSec — says it will steer that Australian retail offer as lead broker, provided the IPO actually goes ahead. One catch: Anthropic won't be chasing a spot on the Australian Securities Exchange. Aussie buyers will get their exposure through the US listing instead.

The company plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT once the IPO closes. CommSec expects the debut before Thanksgiving, putting one of the biggest AI names on the public market in a matter of weeks.

The timing lands in the middle of a nagging question: will the mountains of cash pouring into AI infrastructure ever pay off enough to justify the valuations being tossed around? Investors are chewing on exactly that as Anthropic's numbers come into focus.

Some current and prospective backers are weighing a valuation of $1.5 trillion, down from roughly $2 trillion, after the startup laid out its financial details at a recent investor event, Reuters reported. The company also expects to burn through nearly half of its $895.4 billion in AI infrastructure spending commitments before December 31, 2030 — a figure that isn't calming nerves ahead of the listing.

For Australian retail investors, the pitch is a rare chance to grab a slice of a frontier AI lab without needing an ASX listing. For Anthropic, it's one more pool of capital as the clock ticks toward a Nasdaq bell.