US IPO Market Enters Year-End Rush as AI Firms Including Anthropic Ready Listings

The US initial public offering market is entering its year-end stretch, with artificial intelligence companies including Anthropic preparing for stock market debuts.

Bloomberg reported on September 9 that, with the Labor Day holiday and summer vacation season over, activity is picking up among companies aiming to go public before year-end.

The most closely watched company is AI startup Anthropic. It is pursuing an IPO that could match or exceed the more than $86 billion offering size reached by Elon Musk's SpaceX in June. Its valuation is being discussed at about $2 trillion.

OpenAI is also poised to pursue a market debut this year or next. If it moves ahead, the deal would rank among the largest IPOs ever.

Other potential IPO candidates include AI cloud computing company Nscale, power supplier Aggreko and consumer health technology company Oura Health.

Ajay Shah, chairman of Deutsche Bank's technology investment banking division, said AI-related sectors such as data centers, power and cooling infrastructure, and consumer healthcare could attract investor interest.

Still, rising oil prices, the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and the possibility of additional interest-rate increases remain headwinds for the IPO market. Bloomberg said some companies are delaying listing plans until conditions improve, while others judge the current environment sufficient to proceed.

Matt Kennedy, chief strategist at Renaissance Capital, said lofty valuations for large IPOs do not automatically signal a bubble. Investors accepted SpaceX's high valuation because it reflected the company's long-term earnings potential. Anthropic could use the same logic to justify a valuation of about $2 trillion, he added.