Nvidia and Alphabet Bet $10 Billion Each on Anthropic's IPO

Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, has set terms for its upcoming IPO. It plans to sell 825 million shares at $70 to $78 each, listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker 'ANT.' At the midpoint of $74, that values the company at roughly $61 billion.

In an amended filing, Anthropic revealed that seven firms have agreed to buy a combined $26 billion of stock in a private placement at the IPO price. Nvidia and Alphabet's Google are the two largest participants, each committing about $10 billion.

For Nvidia, that $10 billion buys roughly 135 million shares, or about 1% of Anthropic's expected shares outstanding. The purchase is not directly tied to any chip order, unlike AMD's $2.5 billion investment, which counts toward a $5 billion commitment linked to a July supply deal for AMD's Helios rack-scale systems.

Anthropic's revenue has exploded, reaching $33.2 billion in the first nine months of 2026, up from just $2.5 billion a year earlier. Its operating loss also narrowed to $1.3 billion from $5.2 billion. The company runs its AI models on a mix of chips from Amazon, Google, Nvidia, and AMD, deliberately avoiding dependence on any single vendor.

For Nvidia, $10 billion is a drop in the bucket. The company ended its last quarter with $56.6 billion in cash and marketable securities, and it generated nearly $70 billion in free cash flow in the first half of the fiscal year alone. It already held $99 billion in equity investments as of July.

This investment is more about strategic positioning in the AI ecosystem than about driving chip sales. While Anthropic does use Nvidia GPUs, the filing does not link this purchase to any specific hardware commitment. Nvidia's core business remains the primary driver of its stock, with revenue growth accelerating for three straight quarters, from 62% to 106% year over year.

The stock trades at around 21 times trailing earnings and just 11 times estimated earnings for the next fiscal year. That's a modest valuation for a company growing revenue at triple-digit rates. The Anthropic stake adds potential upside if the AI firm thrives, but it also introduces earnings volatility, as gains or losses on equity investments will flow through Nvidia's reported profit.

For Alphabet, the investment fulfills a prior commitment under a March 2026 financing agreement, using up an option in full. It reinforces Google's deep ties to Anthropic, which also uses Google's tensor processing units. AMD's smaller investment is tied to its supply deal, highlighting the competitive race to lock in AI customers.