Amodei Tells Investors Compute Is Anthropic’s Deepest Dilemma as IPO Book Hits Six Times Oversubscribed

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei told investors on Friday that computing power is the company’s deepest dilemma, as orders for its initial public offering reached about six times the shares on offer.

Amodei sat down with JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon at a livestreamed conversation around noon at JPMorgan’s Manhattan headquarters. It was the final event of the investor roadshow.

Computing means the processing power needed to train and serve artificial intelligence models. Amodei said buying too much would overextend the company, while buying too little would leave it unable to meet customer demand. The company buys a smaller amount first and tops up on the spot market when needed, he said, and the cash raised in the IPO becomes the buffer.

He repeated the phrase “underpromise and overdeliver.” On safety, he said the company is “very paranoid” about AI safety. He said the focus on enterprise customers and coding fits with safety. He spends 40 to 50 percent of his time on talent and culture, and turns down applicants who are technically capable but not oriented toward the public benefit, he said. All seven co-founders and more than three quarters of the original 100 employees remain. Revenue per employee was $6.6 million over the year through Sept. 30.

The numbers are heavy. The company has about $900.9 billion in computing and data center commitments through 2045. About $71 billion is due by Sept. 30, 2027, against $17.0 billion in third-quarter revenue. The gross margin on serving, excluding training costs, is 86 percent. Cash and liquid assets stand at about $132 billion. A $5 billion short-term computing purchase swung the last quarter to an operating loss.

Demand grew through the roadshow. Reuters and Bloomberg reported that the order book was about two times covered at the end of Tuesday, Nov. 10, the first day of the roadshow, and more than six times by the end of Thursday, Nov. 12. The Financial Times reported that bankers are weighing pricing above the marketed range of $70 to $78. The implied price is about $83, with a fully diluted valuation of about $1.5 trillion.

There were no new product announcements. No new revenue figure or pricing signal emerged, and no new price-related filing had been submitted by Friday evening. Pricing is set for Nov. 18, with first trading on Nasdaq on Nov. 19. The price range is $70 to $78 a share, with 825 million shares on offer, under the ticker ANT.

Investors’ questions remain. Whether Anthropic can hold its AI lead against Google, and whether Claude’s lead extends beyond coding, are the open issues. One investor said the company did not answer some questions in detail.

Bank estimates reported by Reuters are not company disclosures. The banks put 2028 revenue at about $270 billion to $280 billion, while sell-side analysts see revenue rising from about $52 billion to $53 billion in 2026 to about $135 billion to $137 billion in 2027.

Two dates remain the focus. Final pricing comes Nov. 18, and the first day of trading is Nov. 19.