Bill Ackman Is a Fan of ‘Remarkable Story’ of Anthropic, but He’s Not Buying Stock at IPO

Pershing Square Capital CEO Bill Ackman has increased the bets on AI-related stocks in his hedge fund’s investment portfolio in recent years. While he’s investing in the artificial intelligence storyline, he plans to skip investing in the IPO of one of the largest AI stocks.

Bill Ackman on Anthropic IPO

AI giant Anthropic, which plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, is gearing up for its highly anticipated IPO, which is expected on Nov. 19.

Reports say the IPO has strong investor interest, which could make the offering oversubscribed. Ackman is not among the people buying shares at IPO.

"I think it’s just a much more complicated question as to what that business is worth. It’s very hard to nail that with any degree of precision," Ackman said at Yahoo Finance Invest. "It could be worth a lot more, a lot less, depending upon a few variables that are difficult to predict. And that’s why it doesn’t fit into our portfolio."

Ackman said he wants to invest in businesses whose future he can predict "with a very high degree of confidence."

"We think of ourselves as very low-risk investors."

The well-known investor had praise for Anthropic, calling the company "perhaps the most amazing business story of this century in terms of from zero to where it is today."

"It’s an absolutely remarkable story."

Ackman’s Concern for Anthropic

Anthropic’s amended S-1 filing showed third-quarter revenue up 1,127% to $17 billion. One of the concerns is that the revenue growth on a quarter-over-quarter basis slowed down, up 47% from the second quarter, compared to 144% and 132% quarter-over-quarter growth rates for the second and first quarters, respectively.

Anthropic also posted a loss of $23.29 billion for the third quarter.

"I think the issue is if Anthropic doesn’t stay in the lead position, then the real questions about the business model (emerge). So the capex they have to spend is really real," Ackman said.

Ackman called Anthropic stock "speculative" compared to other stocks he currently owns for Pershing Square, giving Visa Inc (NYSE:V) as an example. "I think Anthropic is on the cusp, or might even be at, a place in terms of its operating profitability, where it’s real operating profitability," Ackman said.

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