Anthropic's long-anticipated initial public offering is running into turbulence. Potential investors doubt the AI company behind the Claude chatbot can hold its roadshow the week of November 9 and still complete a listing before Thanksgiving, according to a Reuters exclusive citing four people familiar with the discussions.

The roadshow — the string of investor meetings that typically precedes pricing — was expected to kick off this week, with Anthropic's stock trading on the Nasdaq as early as the week before Thanksgiving, November 26. That timeline is now in doubt, Reuters reported.

Valuation Keeps Shrinking

At the heart of the holdup is price. Investors are pushing for a valuation well below the roughly $2 trillion some bankers floated earlier this year. The Wall Street Journal has reported that IPO investors are skeptical Anthropic can clear even $1.5 trillion once public — a figure that would still sit comfortably above the $965 billion valuation the company fetched in its Series H funding round in May, per Finimize.

Investors told Reuters they want to see Anthropic's October revenue — left blank in the company's updated S-1 filing — before committing, to confirm growth has recovered after a recent slowdown. Some are also wary given the company's history of heavy quarterly losses and its large financial commitments to AI infrastructure partners.

"THE RUBBER BAND IS GETTING STRETCHED."

The doubts land amid a broader AI stock selloff. Trading was volatile last Thursday after a two-day rout that followed the U.S. midterm elections, where ballot measures in several states limiting data center development underscored growing political resistance to the AI buildout. More than 50 S&P 1500 tech stocks have fallen 10% or more in the past month, and credit-default swaps on AI infrastructure players CoreWeave and SpaceX have hit records, reflecting rising concern about possible defaults. Truist's Keith Lerner called the selling "something of a buyers' strike," warning that "the rubber band is getting stretched," per the same Reuters report carried by CTV News.

Still a Potential Record-Setter

Even a discounted Anthropic listing would rank among the largest IPOs in history, in the same league as SpaceX's roughly $86 billion raise. Some investors remain bullish regardless of near-term turbulence. Rick Meckler of Cherry Lane Investments told Reuters that AI companies "are going to become public" and will still draw interest, even if valuations pull back after years of private-market gains.

Anthropic declined to comment on the investor doubts. A delay would be a setback for a stock market now heavily weighted toward a handful of large technology and AI names.