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American voters delivered an unmistakable warning this week, expressing mistrust of artificial intelligence and disdain for tech billionaires. Anthropic is preparing to test public markets against that hostile political backdrop.

The AI company is gearing up for a potentially historic initial public offering, with a Nasdaq debut likely targeted for mid November. CNBC reported Friday that investors see Anthropic pursuing a valuation between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion, below the $2 trillion target floated in recent months.

Financial conditions are becoming less welcoming at the same time. The Nasdaq suffered its steepest decline in 19 months on Thursday and began November lower after recording its worst month since March 2025 in October.

Chipmakers and neoclouds, among the companies most closely tied to the AI expansion, have absorbed the heaviest pressure. That market weakness now shadows an offering that could make Anthropic the first pure play AI company to reach public markets.

Tuesday’s midterm elections also delivered a sweeping rejection of the industry’s political priorities. Candidates calling for stricter AI regulation won decisively in Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Georgia, which will all have Democratic governors.

Local opposition was even more lopsided. Communities rejected ballot measures connected to data centers in 40 of 41 cases, while Democrats secured sweeping congressional victories across the country.

More than half of voters told an NBC News exit poll that AI data centers were a crucial or major factor in deciding whom they supported for Congress. The results suggest the physical infrastructure behind AI has become a potent concern for voters.

“People don’t want a data center going near them if it’s just going to house AI that’s going to help a big tech company profit,” Maura Austin, a behavioral scientist at the University of Virginia, told CNBC. She said Anthropic’s lofty valuation leans into the caricature of tech billionaires that voters increasingly distrust.

Anthropic has sought to present itself as a safety conscious company that seriously considers AI’s potential benefits and risks. CEO Dario Amodei founded the business with researchers who left OpenAI, which is now Anthropic’s chief rival.

The company is best known for Claude, its family of AI models, and primarily sells products and services to businesses. That enterprise emphasis has helped Anthropic avoid becoming the public face of AI, a distinction more closely associated with OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman.

An IPO would sharply increase scrutiny as the listing creates new billionaires and many more millionaires. “Being a public company, just that by itself pushes you in the limelight,” Georgetown University finance professor Reena Aggarwal said.

Matt Kennedy, a senior IPO market strategist at Renaissance Capital, said the attention is not necessarily harmful. Public markets require greater transparency, and the debut could introduce Anthropic to new users at a time when several private AI companies are already household names.

Kennedy argued that Anthropic should not face harsher criticism than a comparable private company merely because its shares become publicly traded. Still, AI backlash accelerated over the summer following several prominent safety and security incidents that unsettled the public.

The debate over data centers intensified as major technology companies raised capital expenditure forecasts into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Anthropic and OpenAI rely on advanced data centers to train their models and serve customers, and both are seeking additional capacity to meet demand.

Anthropic disclosed in an amended IPO prospectus that purchase commitments and lease agreements represent about $895.4 billion in committed spending. The company said “substantially all of which is related to compute and infrastructure.”

Americans already struggling with inflation and stubbornly high gasoline prices worry that data centers could increase utility bills, worsen environmental damage and contribute to job losses. For many communities, a proposed facility nearby has become the most visible symbol of broader hostility toward AI.

Anthropic acknowledged in its prospectus that opposition to data center development is becoming more organized across jurisdictions. It also warned that the company’s public profile could attract particular scrutiny to projects associated with Anthropic.

Nicole Greene, an analyst at Gartner, expects Anthropic’s leadership has long prepared for backlash because of the technology’s disruptive nature. “With big emotions and feelings — fear and excitement — comes heightened scrutiny,” Greene told CNBC.

Amodei addressed deteriorating sentiment in an August post on X, describing a “crisis of trust.” He said people believe companies, government and the technology industry are always “cooking up some new way to screw them over.”

A University of Southern California survey published Monday found that 71% of respondents do not trust big technology companies to act in society’s best interest at all regarding data center development. Wändi Bruine de Bruin, a professor at the university’s Schaeffer Institute, offered a stark assessment: “Once you’ve lost trust, it’s hard to gain it back.”

Anthropic will confront that distrust while beginning to provide quarterly financial updates. Its public market ambitions, enormous infrastructure commitments and exposure to organized local opposition ensure the IPO will face scrutiny extending far beyond its valuation.

DISCLAIMER: GoldInvestors.news is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed by GoldInvestors.news are from the personal research and experience of the owner of the site and are intended as educational material. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur.