The chip manufacturer Nvidia is said to invest up to ten billion dollars in the planned IPO of Anthropic. The company would thus act as an anchor investor and subscribe to a portion of the shares even before the broad marketing. The AI provider aims for a valuation of around two trillion dollars at its initial listing.
Nvidia expands role as anchor investor
An anchor investor secures a fixed share of an IPO even before the broad price discovery, signaling confidence in the offering to other investors. According to Reuters, which cites sources familiar with the discussions, Nvidia is considering exactly this role in Anthropic’s planned initial listing. The talks are preliminary and could still change, the report states. For Nvidia, a stake of this magnitude would not be a first: the chip manufacturer already holds billion-dollar stakes in several AI companies, including OpenAI and SpaceX, and had directly invested ten billion dollars in Anthropic in November 2025. In return, Anthropic committed to renting computing capacity from Microsoft Azure for 30 billion dollars, which runs on Nvidia chips. Anthropic also sources its own Nvidia computing power amounting to one gigawatt on Grace-Blackwell and Vera-Rubin systems. Nvidia thus benefits doubly: once through the sale of its own graphics processors, and once through the appreciation of its company stakes. Analysts largely view Nvidia’s investment strategy positively: of 57 analysts surveyed, most continue to recommend the stock as a buy.
Valuation and revenue grow rapidly before debut
In the IPO itself, Anthropic still aims for a valuation of around two trillion dollars, more than double the last private valuation of 965 billion dollars in May 2026. The planned target amount of up to 100 billion dollars is independently unverified but would exceed the previous record of SpaceX, which raised around 86 billion dollars at its initial listing in June 2026. The strong revenue growth provides tailwind for the high valuation: Anthropic’s annual revenue rose from around nine billion dollars at the end of 2025 to more than 65 billion dollars by the end of July 2026, with forecasts seeing around 190 to 200 billion dollars by 2028. The possible Nvidia involvement does not change the previously reported timeline: the prospectus is set to be released at the end of September, marketing is to begin in mid-October, and the debut is planned shortly before the US congressional elections in November. Anthropic had already aimed to convince its investors in August with a market opportunity of over 30 trillion dollars regarding the valuation. The chronicle of all previous stages consolidates the dossier on the IPO.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had stated in March that the ten billion dollars for Anthropic would likely be the last direct investment before its IPO. If the chip manufacturer is indeed negotiating a new billion-dollar sum regarding the IPO itself, Nvidia would not only be the most important chip supplier but also an early shareholder of one of the largest AI IPOs ever – a proximity that critics of circular financing structures in the industry had already criticized in previous Nvidia deals. The official prospectus at the end of September is expected to provide initial clarity on whether Nvidia actually appears as an investor.
