Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei pitched investors on safety and a strict hiring culture

Institutional investors based in mainland China and Hong Kong have reportedly been shut out from placing orders in Anthropic PBC’s massive initial public offering (IPO). According to a report by Bloomberg, Anthropic's 'IPO ban' highlights mounting geopolitical sensitivities surrounding the artificial intelligence industry. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that several banks handling the offering have either refused to accept orders from buyers in those jurisdictions or deemed it unlikely they would receive share allocations. The restrictions stem in part from the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which govern the trade of defense-related articles and services.San Francisco-based Anthropic and its co-founders are aiming to raise as much as $90.4 billion through the IPO and a concurrent private placement, targeting a $1.4 trillion valuation. According to deal terms reviewed by Bloomberg News, the offering is scheduled to price on November 18 and begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market the following day under the ticker symbol ANT.Incidentally, Anthropic’s products are already unavailable in mainland China and Hong Kong, and earlier this year, the company blocked access for users traveling to those locations. Similarly in September 2025, Anthropic updated its service restriction policy to prohibit access from global subsidiaries of Chinese companies. In a statement published on its website, the San Francisco-based company laid out its updated terms of service, which now broaden access restrictions to entities “more than 50 per cent owned, directly or indirectly, by companies headquartered in unsupported regions”. “This update prohibits companies or organisations whose ownership structures subject them to control from jurisdictions where our products are not permitted, like China, regardless of where they operate,” it said.Anthropic is targeting a valuation of $1.25 trillion to $1.4 trillionDespite a sharp selloff in AI-related stocks last week, demand for the Claude chatbot maker’s debut remains intense, with prospective investors expressing interest for roughly six times the available shares. Some early backers have even begun offering portions of their IPO allocations to new buyers. According to a report in The Information, "Anthropic is targeting a valuation of $1.25 trillion to $1.4 trillion in its IPO next week, but some investors think that's too low. With its business already larger than OpenAI's, Anthropic could command an even higher price when shares begin trading."The exclusion mirrors the $86.2 billion IPO of Elon Musk’s Spacex earlier this year, during which international distribution coordinator Citigroup Inc. notified syndicate banks that Chinese and Hong Kong investors were barred under ITAR. In Anthropic's case, verbal guidance from the New York-based syndicate team similarly indicated that ITAR rules prohibit participation from the China region, though banks have not formally stopped sales teams from submitting client orders.

How Anthropic IPO hints at the banIn its prospectus, Anthropic flagged escalating US-China tensions and heightened scrutiny from Washington regarding AI firms' exposure to Chinese state actors as key business risks. The company is also currently embroiled in a legal dispute with the Pentagon over a supply-chain risk designation, following an appeals court request last month by the Trump administration to reinstate a federal agency ban on Anthropic's technology.