Banks got Anthropic IPO plans before quick retraction, reasons unclear

As it stands, we still expect that roadshow to go ahead today. We expect the IPO, at least we're being guided towards an IPO before Thanksgiving. But then we got that email out of the blue last night that was quickly retracted that talked about a share sale of something close to 69 billion worth of shares will be on offer at the IPO. Why that was retracted is not entirely clear. There is a supposition that Anthropic wanted to sell more shares than the SpaceX IPO, which was 80 billion of shares. So maybe there was something that... Did get lost in the communications, but either way, that's been taken back. So we have to wait and see when they come out today what exactly the details will be. But what has happened over the last six weeks with regard to Anthropic is that valuation has swung wildly. At one point, only six weeks ago, we were looking at a valuation of close to $2 trillion. At least that's what people were being guided towards. It then dropped to $2 trillion. 1.5 trillion, there were reports of that, Reuters reporting that that was the case. And at this point, people are now guiding, saying it might be 1.1, 1.2 trillion. So that's almost a 50% drop in the valuation of one of the biggest companies, certainly the first big major AI developer to go and list. That's a wild swing in valuation, and it tells you everything about the nervousness within that sector. How do you value these companies? What are they worth? And for that, we have to kind of look at the whole worries and all the issues around AI, how it's priced, all the data center issues, all of which are very uncertain. So you can cross your fingers again and hope for the best on that one. But that sort of swing in valuation tells you everything you need to know where the market is at the moment. And also people tend to look at volatility measures when they're going for IPO. And with the VIX, which is the so-called fear index on Wall Street, With the VIX well above 20 again after the recent shakeout in tech stocks, that's a nervier moment to go for an IPO because it indicates that there could be wild swings even after the listing.