NYU professor Aswath Damodaran ("Dean of Valuation") says Anthropic's IPO will be priced on run-rate revenue rather than cash flows
Aswath Damodaran argues Anthropic's IPO will be priced on buzz metrics like run-rate revenue rather than cash flows, noting H1 2026 losses of $8.7B at Anthropic and $21.6B at OpenAI rule out earnings multiples. Justifying a $1.5T–$2T valuation requires very fast early growth and 30%+ operating margins, and he flags that ARR itself has no standard — OpenAI's $50B counts partner sales net while Anthropic's $65B counts them gross. His framing matters because VC rounds are already pricing the IPO rather than valuing the business: Anthropic raised $65B at a $965B post-money valuation against an expected $1.15T IPO.
SOURCES
- Rohan Paul2026-10-23 17:28