Anthropic plans to file an IPO that warns investors the public might be mad about data centers and job loss. Revolutionary stuff. A company admitting people dislike what it does.
Every tech IPO includes risk factors. Patent lawsuits. Regulatory changes. Competition from larger firms. Anthropic decided to add "society thinks we're the problem" to the list. The S-1 will read like a hostage note written by the hostage taker.
Here's what this tells you. The company knows its business model requires burning enough electricity to power a mid-sized country while training models that replace copywriters. They know voters are pissed. They know local governments are blocking data center construction. And they still want your money.
The risk factor section exists so lawyers can point to it later when shareholders sue. See, we told you everyone hated us. You bought the stock anyway. That's on you.
Retail traders will read "AI backlash" and think it means buying opportunity. Contrarian thinking. Everyone hates it now but they'll love it later. These are the same people who bought Peloton at $160 because they saw their neighbor use one twice.
The truly deranged part is listing public fear as a risk factor while simultaneously pitching growth. We're going to scale this thing everyone despises. Give us billions. The confidence is almost admirable.
Anthropic will price the IPO. Institutions will buy it. The stock will trade. Analysts will set price targets based on revenue multiples that assume infinite scaling. None of them will mention that the risk factor section reads like a confession.
And when the stock craters eighteen months later because some city council in Ohio banned new data centers, the prospectus will have the words "we f*cking told you" on page seventy-three.
Photo by Brecht Corbeel on Unsplash
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