Naughty Flicks

Skip NavigationMarketsBusinessInvestingTechPolitics & PolicyVideoWatchlistInvesting ClubPROLivestreamMenuTech investors sound cautiously optimistic about Anthropic’s S-1 public offering document , despite persistent concerns about the future of AI and dangers of the technology. Anthropic reported a substantial deceleration in revenue growth from the second to third quarter, yet investors reacted positively to the company’s core financials, featuring an adjusted operating margin of 10% for the six months ended June 30. “I was not wowed by that, but I was pleasantly surprised – or at least modestly pleasantly surprised,” Paul Meeks, head of technology research at Freedom Capital Markets, told CNBC. Even including stock-based compensation, which takes a bite out of margins, Anthropic’s net losses are “very small,” Gil Luria, head of technology research at DA Davidson, said. “That’s very important,” he added. “The anti-AI movement has described [Anthropic] as a business that destroys value with every … AI query, and that’s just not true,” he said. Anthropic’s net loss for the first half of this year was $80.7 billion , including a $72.4 billion loss due to non-cash accounting rules around convertible debt. The firm cited a “change in fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities, and simple agreements for future equity” for the loss. The company has not yet had a year in the black, though that’s common for early-stage tech firms. Anthropic aims to go public amid rising worries about the rapid pace of AI’s commodification amid competition from open weight models. The company outlined a long list of risks in its filing and warned, “We may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.” One major unknown is Anthropic’s “run-rate revenue,” which it left blank in the S-1. Run-rate revenues for Anthropic were reported in August around $65 billion, though the company said in the filing that the figure “is not a substitute for revenue” and “is not a forecast of future revenue.” Luria, however, noted the company’s cash on hand totaling $112.4 billion plus $19.3 billion held in various types of securities as a positive. NVDA 5D mountain NVDA 5 day The tech sector was largely in the green on Monday morning, with Nvidia , Broadcom , Micron and AMD all up more than 2% as of 12 p.m. ET. The risks Anthropic’s public offering document also flags the fact that the company is structured as a public benefits corporation. This means that maximizing profits and shareholder value – which is the sole concern of corporations according to some prescriptive schools of economic thought – is not the company’s only priority. “As a public benefit corporation, we are required to balance the pecuniary interests of our stockholders, the best interests of those materially affected by our conduct, and the specific public benefit purpose identified in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation: the responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity,” the S-1 says. Investors should be prepared for the possibility of lower-than-expected returns and atypical corporate behaviors from Anthropic over the longer term, given the powers of its technology and the as-yet unknown ways in which it will develop and be implemented. “They’re describing what it means to be a public benefits corporation, which is to say, ‘We’re not here to maximize shareholder value,’ ” Luria said. “That’s unusual.” AI stocks are getting a bump from Anthropic’s filing, which sets the stage for an investor roadshow and public offering in mid-to-late November. Luria singled out hyperscalers Amazon and Alphabet along with chipmaker Broadcom as key beneficiaries of Anthropic’s IPO.Read More