Anthropic, one of the leaders in artificial intelligence development, is preparing for one of the most anticipated initial public offerings in the technology sector. However, ahead of its stock market debut, the company intends to include in its prospectus an item unusual for traditional tech giants—a direct reference to risks associated with growing public distrust of AI and data center infrastructure.
According to my information, the document will be published in the coming weeks. A confidential filing was submitted back in June, after which Anthropic held a series of closed meetings with banks and key investors in San Francisco. In the risk section, the company plans to describe in detail the phenomenon of "public resistance" to new data center projects, which has taken on alarming proportions in recent months.
Investors ask tough questions
Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao has already faced questions about competitive pressure from open-source models and margin compression. However, investors' main concern is not competitors but operational risks. The slowdown in data center construction, driven by protests from local communities and stricter regulation, directly threatens Anthropic's ability to scale computing capacity. And it is precisely on this that revenue depends: the company's annual run rate exceeded $65 billion in July, roughly $25 billion more than OpenAI's comparable figure.
The over-the-counter market already values Anthropic at nearly $1 trillion, and after the listing, investors expect a market capitalization of around $2 trillion. The company has set an ambitious goal—to match or surpass SpaceX's record for funds raised in an IPO.
Numbers that cannot be ignored
Poll data confirms that the problem is not exaggerated. A Gallup study conducted in March showed that 7 out of 10 Americans oppose placing AI data centers near their homes, with 48% strongly opposed. Even more alarming dynamics were recorded in a recent Heatmap Pro survey (Embold Research, August 8–13, 2,045 registered voters): 75% of respondents opposed the construction of such facilities—a year earlier, that share was only 42%.
Against this backdrop, it is unsurprising that concerns about jobs are also growing. Pew Research shows that 71% of American adults expect job losses due to AI over the next 20 years, compared with 64% in 2024. Politicians are already responding: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed an executive order tightening requirements for data center construction, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced a moratorium on permits for new large-scale facilities.
My analysis: Including such risks in the prospectus is not merely a legal formality but a signal of market maturity. Anthropic acknowledges that technological progress can no longer ignore the socio-political context. For investors, this means that the $2 trillion valuation will depend not only on innovation but also on the company's ability to build dialogue with society and regulators. This is a new challenge that many in the industry are not yet prepared for.