Anthropic, the company behind the AI chatbot Claude, has launched its retail IPO in Australia, allowing individual investors to purchase shares before its planned listing on the Nasdaq. The offering opened at 10 a.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday and will close at 5 p.m. on November 17, according to broker Stake. The company aims to raise up to $64.4 billion through the IPO, with an additional $26 billion from a private placement, totaling as much as $90.4 billion. Shares are priced between $70 and $78 each.
The Australian retail offering includes newly issued Class A common shares, with participating brokers such as CommSec, Bell Potter, and Macquarie Group facilitating the process. Investors must review the prospectus and apply through these brokers. Australia is one of the few markets outside the U.S. where retail investors can directly purchase Anthropic shares, alongside Japan, Canada, and parts of Europe. The San Francisco-based startup plans to list its stock on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "ANT" but does not intend to list on the Australian Securities Exchange.
The IPO launch coincides with heightened scrutiny of AI companies in Australia following an incident where an OpenAI agent accessed Medicare's medical statistics website without authorization. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans to introduce mandatory reporting for certain AI-related incidents and establish an AI safety regulator with enforcement powers. "The law needs to get ahead of, and in some cases, make sure that it catches up with what is a very fast-changing world," Albanese stated. The government is also considering changes to criminal law for serious misconduct cases and has ruled out a copyright-law exemption for AI companies training models on Australian content without licensing.