Anthropic is expected to highlight growing public backlash against artificial intelligence and data center construction as a key risk factor when it files its IPO prospectus, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Claude AI maker has been holding preliminary ‘test-the-water’ meetings with bankers and investors in San Francisco, the people said, asking not to be named because the sessions are confidential. During those meetings, Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao has fielded questions about competition, margin pressure from open-source models, and the potential impact of a slowdown in data center buildouts.
Anthropic confidentially filed for its initial public offering in June, positioning it to become one of the largest public listings on record. Investors expect the company could eventually top the current record set by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose AI-focused unit raised $85.7 billion including the underwriter option two months ago. Anthropic is projected to float at a valuation of roughly $2 trillion, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Public sentiment turns against AI infrastructure
Like rival OpenAI, Anthropic has pushed its infrastructure partners to expand rapidly to keep pace with demand for advanced models and new services. Hyperscale cloud providers are expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars this year on capital expenditures to build data centers and acquire the GPUs needed to power them.
But public opinion is increasingly hostile to that expansion. A Gallup survey published in May found that seven in 10 Americans opposed AI data center construction in their area, with close to half of respondents ‘strongly opposed.’ Only about a quarter of those surveyed supported such projects.
With midterm elections less than three months away, politicians on both sides of the aisle are responding to constituent anger. In Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, Rep. Byron Donalds, who has proposed restrictions on data centers in the state, won the race. On the same day, Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order imposing strict standards on data center development.
Compute capacity and revenue growth
Companies are required to disclose risk factors in their prospectus both for investor transparency and legal protection. SpaceX, for instance, noted in its own filing that ‘Adverse global macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions may negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.’
For AI labs like Anthropic, compute capacity is directly tied to revenue. The company, valued at close to $1 trillion in the private market, recently surpassed a $65 billion annual revenue run rate, according to a previous CNBC report. A slowdown in data center construction could threaten that historic growth pace.
— CNBC’s Ashley Capoot contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/21/-anthropic-ipo-filing-will-show-ai-backlash-as-risk-sources-say.html
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