Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei aims to “underpromise and overdeliver” as IPO valuation falls below hopes of $2 trillion.
A future of new scientific discoveries where cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart disease are considered relics of the past, and where artificial intelligence agents perform an increasing number of complex tasks for humans safely.
Those were among the ambitions that Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) CEO Dario Amodei outlined to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon on Friday as the artificial intelligence startup prepares for one of the biggest IPOs in history.
“We can have a much more beautiful world… It seems dazzling. It seems crazy. I really believe in it,” Amodei said.
The remarks were made during a livestreamed conversation at JPMorgan’s Manhattan headquarters, one of Anthropic’s final stops this week in its efforts on Wall Street to drum up investor demand for its IPO next week.
Amodei presented a holistic view of technology, from accelerating scientific discoveries and transforming medicine to deploying increasingly capable AI agents in areas such as robotics and cybersecurity.
He also highlighted the company’s technology that creates new markets.
“You are in an exponential phase of cognition, and as this exponential growth progresses, new markets become possible,” Amodei told Dimon.
But achieving these ambitions comes with enormous financial costs. Amodei described obtaining enough computing power to support Anthropic’s growth without spending beyond its means as the company’s “deepest business dilemma.”
Asked by Dimon why Anthropic is going public now, the Princeton doctor highlighted the need for additional liquidity to help manage the uncertainty surrounding Anthropic’s IT investments.
The company must commit to costly infrastructure long before it knows how much demand its AI products will generate. Amodei said Anthropic typically buys less capacity up front than its growth projections would justify, topping it up when demand exceeds expectations.
“We actually tend to buy at a low price,” he said.
The IPO would provide additional financial cushion as Anthropic balances these risks with its extraordinary growth ambitions.
“The more cash we have, the more margin we have between those two things,” Amodei said, while suggesting the company isn’t chasing its highest possible valuation.
Anthropic wants to “under-promise and over-promise,” Amodei said.
Anthropic plans to price its offering on Wednesday and begin negotiations on Thursday, Nov. 19, aiming to raise up to $90.4 billion through its IPO and a concurrent private sale of shares at a valuation of approximately $1.4 trillion, according to the company’s IPO website.
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