Anthropic IPO Looms Over US Listings

Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI model, is preparing to file publicly for an initial public offering expected to raise as much as or more than SpaceX's record $86.2 billion debut. The impending mega-IPO is casting a shadow over other companies' US listing plans, as they scramble to schedule their own IPOs around it to capture investor attention. The rush is reminiscent of the period before SpaceX's listing, when 14 sizable companies went public in the preceding month and subsequently posted a weighted average loss of 9.5%. With the Labor Day holiday, a mid-September United States — Federal Reserve meeting, and November mid-term elections, IPO windows are tight. Several companies, including Nscale, Oura Health, Aggreko, CoVolt Power, OVO Energy, Inspire Brands, and Switch, are preparing to go public in the coming months. Bankers note that non-thematic IPOs are trickier, and smaller deals may struggle to gain attention. This year's IPOs have underperformed the broader market, with the weighted-average return for US listings at 5.6% versus 13% for the S&P 500 and 17% for the Nasdaq-100.