{"id":820111,"date":"2026-10-31T20:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T20:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/820111\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T20:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T20:54:14","slug":"anthropics-path-to-the-nasdaq-just-got-a-lot-bumpier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/820111\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthropic&#8217;s path to the Nasdaq just got a lot bumpier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Co-founder and CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei looks on as President Donald Trump speaks to the press after a meeting with technology executives about artificial intelligence at the White House in Washington, Sept. 29, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/27\/-anthropic-ipo-investors-growth-losses-s-1.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthropic<\/a> picked a tough week to unveil its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/ashley-capoot\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">IPO prospectus<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Within days of its release, several of the company&#8217;s key partners, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/MSFT\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/GOOG\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/AMZN\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon<\/a>, reported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/29\/amazon-amzn-q3-earnings-report-2026.html?&amp;qsearchterm=annie%20palmer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">quarterly results<\/a> that added fuel to existing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/29\/microsoft-google-ai-capex-estimates.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">market jitters<\/a> around the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/ai-artificial-intelligence\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">artificial intelligence<\/a> buildout. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everybody&#8217;s still full steam ahead on AI, but all the things around it took an interesting turn this week,&#8221; Daniel Newman, CEO at Futurum Group, told CNBC in an interview on Friday. The hyperscalers&#8217; results have &#8220;raised eyebrows&#8221; and created a new headwind in the market, which is &#8220;more doubt on capital structure,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p>No matter the current state of the market, Anthropic was going to have to address a skeptical investor base as it pursues a potentially record-setting initial public offering in the coming weeks. In its prospectus on Monday, the AI company disclosed a net loss for the first half of the year of $80 billion, alongside hundreds of billions of dollars&#8217; worth of compute commitments and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/27\/anthropic-five-surprising-risks-s1.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">more than 90 pages of risk factors<\/a>.\u00a0Investors are still waiting to see Anthropic&#8217;s third-quarter financials. <\/p>\n<p>Heading into this week, fears were mounting about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/isabel-obrien\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">financial health<\/a> of neoclouds like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/CRWV\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CoreWeave<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/NBIS\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nebius<\/a>, which are facing rising borrowing costs and a dearth of lenders as they pursue aggressive AI buildouts. Anthropic gets much of its capacity from Amazon, Google and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/SPCX\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SpaceX<\/a>, but it also relies on neoclouds for some compute as it races to expand as quickly as possible. <\/p>\n<p>Now investors are growing increasingly worried about the whole AI trade.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a great technology, seems to do things that we never would have imagined, but how does that then translate into a viable business?&#8221; David Hsu, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>The Nasdaq Composite notched its first three-week losing streak since March after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/29\/stock-market-today-live-updates.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">plunging<\/a> 2.9% on Friday. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/NVDA\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nvidia<\/a>, whose graphics processing units have powered the AI boom, traded lower, along with the whole semiconductor sector, after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/INTC\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Intel<\/a> issued a weak forecast, sending its stock to its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/30\/amazon-intel-earnings-big-tech-ai-spending-concerns.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">steepest drop<\/a> since the 1970s. <\/p>\n<p>Microsoft, Google and Amazon all had notes of concern this week in their reports. The companies have been on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/30\/tech-giants-alphabet-meta-microsoft-amazon-ai-buildouts.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spending blitz<\/a> in recent years to meet the surge in demand for AI infrastructure, but all three issued capex figures or forecasts that came in below analysts&#8217; estimates. Microsoft lowered its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/28\/microsoft-msft-q1-earnings-report-2027.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">capex forecast<\/a> for the year to $170 billion from $175 billion, while Alphabet maintained its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/28\/alphabet-googl-earnings-q3-2026.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">guidance<\/a> for up to $205 billion and Amazon reiterated its roughly $220 billion forecast.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been an ugly reporting season for tech thus far,&#8221; Jonathan Krinsky, managing director at BTIG, wrote in a Thursday note. He described the fallout as &#8220;The Techsas Chainsaw Massacre,&#8221; adding that there&#8217;s too much weakness in the sector for the market to ignore. <\/p>\n<p>Cash is becoming an issue. Amazon reported negative free cash flow for the second consecutive quarter, recording an outflow of $42.4 billion for the trailing 12-month period. Google reported negative free cash flow of $9.1 billion, one reason the stock <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/29\/alphabet-google-microsoft-msft-shares-today-earnings.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tanked<\/a> almost 13% on Thursday, its worst day ever. <\/p>\n<p>Microsoft maintained positive free cash flow of $18.6 billion, but it&#8217;s down significantly for a second straight quarter. The company announced plans on Thursday to raise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/29\/microsoft-25-billion-debt-offering.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$25 billion in bonds<\/a>, as it seeks additional sources of funding to help finance its infrastructure expansion. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Suddenly, they&#8217;re like, &#8216;We can&#8217;t keep funding this on free cash flow,'&#8221; Newman said. &#8220;The worry is that basically now there&#8217;s no company that&#8217;s able to do this using their own business capabilities to create cash flow. It&#8217;s becoming increasingly alarming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"headline0\"\/>Cloud growth remains strong<\/p>\n<p>Anthropic&#8217;s hyperscaler partners are also among its biggest investors. The companies all need each other to keep the flywheel turning, a topic that&#8217;s sure to be a major point of discussion in Anthropic&#8217;s upcoming roadshow. <\/p>\n<p>Anthropic didn&#8217;t immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n<p>A big tail wind for Anthropic remains AI demand. <\/p>\n<p>Microsoft, Google and Amazon all reported cloud growth that topped analysts&#8217; estimates, with revenue in Google&#8217;s business more than doubling from a year earlier. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/ORCL\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oracle<\/a>, one of the biggest spenders on AI data centers, said at its investor day on Wednesday that<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/28\/oracle-forecast-growth-2030.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> it will limit additional fundraising <\/a>in the coming years to $20 billion, and will turn cash flow positive in the second half of next fiscal year. <\/p>\n<p>Analysts at Citizens wrote in a Thursday report that the announcement &#8220;put the biggest investor fear to rest \u2014 that funding its enormous AI infrastructure buildout would require an open-ended increase in debt and equity issuance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"InlineVideo-videoThumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/108478789-17932518161793251813-49299620202-1080pnbcnews.jpg\" alt=\"Big Tech earnings put AI spending and profitability in focus: Analyst\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Attention will now turn back from hyperscaler earnings to Anthropic, as investors assess how much risk they&#8217;re willing to assume and at what price. <\/p>\n<p>The IPO market has largely been frozen since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/SPCX\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SpaceX&#8217;s<\/a> record offering in June. Biometric ring maker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/09\/29\/smart-ring-maker-oura-postpones-ipo-due-to-market-uncertainty.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oura<\/a>, Australian AI data center operator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/09\/nvidia-ai-firmus-ipo-.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Firmus<\/a> and SK Hynix&#8217;s U.S.-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/10\/23\/ai-turmoil-neoclouds-struggle-credit-risks-jump-solidigm-pulls-ipo.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Solidigm<\/a> subsidiary have all recently postponed or abandoned plans to IPO. Nscale, a neocloud that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/03\/09\/nscale-ai-data-center-nvidia-raise.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">filed<\/a> to go public <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/03\/09\/nscale-ai-data-center-nvidia-raise.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in September<\/a>, hasn&#8217;t updated its prospectus in weeks, nor has SoftBank&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/09\/01\/sb-energy-ipo-softbank-open-ai-nvidia.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SB Energy<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>With Anthropic, Newman said the FOMO \u2014 fear of missing out \u2014 on a potentially &#8220;generational&#8221; company is real, and that the prospectus was &#8220;very impressive,&#8221; showing 1,300% annual sales growth, 900% net revenue retention and an implied gross margin of 85%. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Anthropic is the IPO market at this point,&#8221; Newman said. &#8220;I think companies would have to be extremely cautious, if not just foolish, to actually want to come out in this period.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CNBC&#8217;s Jordan Novet, Annie Palmer and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p>WATCH: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/video\/2026\/10\/30\/anthropics-heavy-ai-spending-could-hold-the-key-to-its-profitability.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthropic\u2019s heavy AI spending could hold the key to its profitability: Ark Invest<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"InlineVideo-videoThumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/108483720-17933206771793320674-49316342307-1080pnbcnews.jpg\" alt=\"Anthropic's heavy AI spending could hold the key to its profitability: Ark Invest\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Co-founder and CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei looks on as President Donald Trump speaks to the press after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,20690,24498,4143,207810,733,4308,273,77344,12055,12056,158692,29130,1638,158685,4519,85445,177432,165690,158684,10182,59441,4140,30611,98022,12990,86,115045,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-820111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-alphabet-class-a","tag-alphabet-class-c","tag-amazon-com-inc","tag-ark-innovation-etf","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-business-news","tag-coreweave","tag-earnings","tag-enterprise","tag-first-trust-cloud-computing-etf","tag-intel-corp","tag-internet","tag-invesco-qqq-trust","tag-ipo","tag-iren-ltd","tag-ishares-expanded-tech-sector-etf","tag-ishares-expanded-tech-software-sector-etf","tag-ishares-semiconductor-etf","tag-microsoft-corp","tag-nebius-group-nv","tag-nvidia-corp","tag-oracle-corp","tag-sk-hynix-inc","tag-space-exploration-technologies-corp","tag-technology","tag-technology-select-sector-spdr-fund","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}