as antropic A blockbuster initial public offering is becoming the center of attention on Wall Street, CNBC’s Jim Cramer argued Thursday, with some questions remaining about the artificial intelligence startup’s long-term prospects.
The Claude developer plans to price the stock on November 18 and begin trading the next day. In its latest IPO documents filed Tuesday, the company outlined plans to offer 825 million shares at prices between $70 and $78 per share. At the high end, the offering raises $64.35 billion, valuing Anthropic at up to $1.405 trillion on a fully diluted basis.
Despite Anthropic’s explosive growth and improved profitability, Cramer pointed to three uncertainties that impact the evaluation of investment deals.
How will Anthropic’s price cuts affect its bottom line? Anthropic has recently reduced prices on several Claude models, raising concerns that customers are becoming cost-conscious or looking to cheaper alternatives. Lower prices may increase usage, but additional fees for faster processing may help offset the savings. Kramer said he was encouraged by the continued strong sales growth in October despite the cuts, but would like to see if that momentum continues in the coming months. Where will Anthropic’s next $100 billion in revenue come from? Much of Anthropic’s incredible growth is being driven by Claude Code, an AI coding agency that’s gaining traction among enterprise customers. But Mr. Kramer questioned whether that product alone could sustain the growth needed to cover the company’s roughly $900 billion in future computing business. Anthropic introduced Claude Cowork, an industry-specific tool and product designed to compete with Microsoft Office. He said cybersecurity, life sciences and robotics could also represent significant growth opportunities. Will Anthropic’s focus on AI safety help or hurt its growth? Anthropic has built its reputation around a pledge to develop AI responsibly, and CEO Dario Amodei has warned of the potential dangers of its increasingly powerful model. Kramer questioned whether the effort could ultimately dampen revenue growth if the company delays the release of advanced models. However, he said a safety-first approach could prove a competitive advantage as companies become wary of deploying autonomous AI systems.
For now, Kramer remains hesitant to recommend buying Anthropic stock at the start of trading, but said he is still evaluating the deal and its potential risks before making a final decision. “Right now, I would just say I would be cautious about doing that,” he said.
