Anthropic reportedly plans to move forward with IPO plans

Anthropic is pressing ahead with its plan to go public despite shaky market conditions, according to a TechCrunch brief by Marina Temkin published November 9, 2026, which relies on reporting from The Wall Street Journal. TechCrunch notes that the timing looks risky: the move comes soon after one of the Nasdaq's largest sell-offs and amid revelations that a chief executive closely tied to the AI boom had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy.

According to the Journal, Anthropic intends to set a valuation range this week, with shares expected to begin trading on Thursday or Friday of next week. The valuation itself has been shifting downward. Some institutional investors are now pushing for a figure below the $1.5 trillion target that was being discussed as recently as last week, the report said. That target was already well below the $2 trillion valuation floated a few months earlier.

The comparison with Anthropic's chief rival is also telling. OpenAI was reportedly valued at $1.25 trillion last week after raising $11 billion in new capital, which fell short of the $20 billion the ChatGPT maker had originally hoped to secure.

The listing matters beyond Anthropic itself. TechCrunch says investors will treat the company's valuation as a gauge of how strong the AI boom really is. Falling valuation expectations at both leading AI labs, along with OpenAI's smaller-than-planned raise, suggest investor enthusiasm may be cooling just as one of the sector's flagship companies tests the public markets.