Anthropic, the maker of AI chatbot Claude, opened its retail initial public offering in Australia on Wednesday, giving individual investors access to shares ahead of the company’s planned listing on Nasdaq. The offer opened at 10am Australian Eastern Time on Wednesday and is expected to close at 5pm on November 17, according to the schedule published by participating broker Stake. placement, bringing a combined total to $90.4 billion. The shares are expected to be priced between $70 and $78 each. The Australian retail offering is expected to consist of newly issued Class A ordinary shares under a prospectus to be filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Anthropic said on its website. Participating brokers include Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s CommSec unit as lead broker, along with Bell Potter, LGT Wealth, Macquarie Group, Morgans, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sharesies and Stake. Anthropic said the prospectus would be available on its IPO website once the Australian retail offering opens. Investors will need to review the document and apply through participating brokers as per the terms of the offering. Australia is one of the few markets outside the US where retail investors will be able to buy the company’s shares directly, along with Japan, Canada and parts of Europe. The San Francisco-based AI startup has filed to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “ANT.” Anthropic said it does not plan to seek a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. AI scrutiny grows The offering comes as Australia is taking steps to tighten oversight of AI companies after an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to the medical statistics website of Medicare, the country’s universal health insurance program. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday the government would introduce mandatory reporting for certain AI-related incidents and establish an AI safety regulator with powers to impose sanctions. “The law needs to get ahead of itself, and in some cases, make sure it catches up with a very rapidly changing world,” Albanese told Reuters. The government is also considering changes to criminal law for cases involving serious misconduct. The country has also ruled out an exemption to copyright law that would allow AI companies to train models on Australian content without a licence. Open AI and Anthropic told the Australian parliament last month that they would support mandatory notification of data breaches involving their AI agents, acknowledging that disclosure is currently voluntary.
