Anthropic is preparing a Nasdaq IPO, likely in mid-November, as voters and markets show growing resistance to AI, according to CNBC.
CNBC reported that Anthropic investors now see a valuation of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, down from a $2 trillion target floated in recent months. The Nasdaq suffered its steepest drop in 19 months on Thursday, and chipmakers and neoclouds have been hit hardest.
The report says voters rebuked AI in Tuesday's midterm elections. Local communities opposed data center ballot measures in 40 of 41 cases. An NBC News exit poll found that more than half of voters said AI data centers were a "crucial" or "major factor" in who they supported for Congress.
Behavioral scientist Maura Austin of the University of Virginia told CNBC: "People don't want a data center going near them if it's just going to house AI that's going to help a big tech company profit."
Anthropic said in an amended IPO prospectus that it has entered into purchase commitments and lease agreements with an aggregate committed spend of about $895.4 billion, "substantially all of which is related to compute and infrastructure." The prospectus also says opposition to data center development has become more organized across jurisdictions.
A University of Southern California survey published Monday found that 71% of respondents do not trust big tech companies to act in society's best interest "at all" around data center development, according to the report.