Americans are Turning Against AI — Anthropic Says It Could Hurt IPO

Anthropic will name negative sentiment towards artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers as a risk factor in its IPO prospectus, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The document is expected within weeks. Anthropic filed confidentially in June and has since held preliminary meetings with bankers and investors in San Francisco.

Anthropic Fields Investor Questions Before Public Debut

Companies disclose risk factors to warn investors and to shield themselves legally. Anthropic will point to a public mood that has hardened against new data center projects. 

Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao is fielding questions on competition and margin pressure from open-source models, the sources said. Investors are also asking what happens if data center construction slows.

This question matters because compute capacity tracks directly with revenue at AI labs. Anthropic’s annualized revenue run rate topped $65 billion in July, roughly $25 billion above OpenAI’s level.

The company is valued at nearly $1 trillion in private markets. Investors expect a public float of around $2 trillion. BeInCrypto reported that Anthropic expects its IPO to match or beat SpaceX’s record stock market debut.

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Surveys Show US Opposition to Data Centers Hardening

Polling supports the disclosure. A Gallup survey conducted in March found that 7 in 10 Americans oppose a local AI data center, with 48% strongly opposed.

Opposition has since deepened. A Heatmap Pro poll of 2,045 registered voters, conducted August 8 to 13 by Embold Research, put opposition at 75%, up from 42% a year earlier.

Job anxiety runs alongside it. Pew Research found that 71% of adults expect AI to cut US jobs over the next two decades, up from 64% in 2024.

Politicians have responded. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed an executive order imposing strict standards on data center development. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul has also ordered a pause on permits for large new data centers.

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