As investors remain cautious, AI stocks rise as Anthropic prepares to debut on Wall Street

Reuters, October 26 - On Monday, as Anthropic released its Initial Public Offering (IPO) filing (link), AI-related stocks saw gains, despite growing investor unease over debt-driven spending in this new technology infrastructure buildout.

Nvidia NVDA.O, the world's most valuable company by market cap, rose nearly 3%. Microsoft MSFT.O and Amazon AMZN.O shares both gained close to 1%.

According to analysts, a successful listing by a pure AI giant like Anthropic could reshape how the market values booming sectors of the industry, including chipmakers and related infrastructure companies.

Additionally, as investors make room in their portfolios to bet on the technology in new ways, some funds might flow from certain tech giants to Anthropic.

The industry’s intricate web of relationships adds another layer of complexity, as some of the biggest tech companies are not only investors in Anthropic but also in its main competitor, OpenAI.

Among other AI stocks, previously lagging neoclouds CoreWeave (CRWV.O) and Nebius Group (NBIS.O) rose 5.7% and 2.3% respectively after the announcement, reversing earlier declines caused by comments from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. (link)

Data center operators Applied Digital (APLD.O) and IREN (IREN.O) saw their shares jump 1% and 3% respectively.

Memory chipmaker Micron (MU.O) climbed 3%, while data storage companies SanDisk (SNDK.O), Western Digital (WDC.O), and Seagate (STX.O) each gained about 2.5%.

AMD AMD.O and Broadcom AVGO.O rose 2.5% and 3% respectively. Anthropic’s early investor Zoom Communications ZM.O increased by 1.5%.

The broader Philadelphia Semiconductor Index .SOX gained more than 3%.

Market attention has now shifted to the potential IPO of OpenAI. Although the stakes are high, the long-term impact of these IPOs on the AI sector remains uncertain.

“Ultimately, investing in AI today is about discovering those underappreciated potential stocks,” said Michael Smith, head of the growth equity team at Allspring Global Investments.

“Right now, attractive investment opportunities in AI may lie in small and mid-cap companies that are able to efficiently and rapidly address increasingly severe infrastructure challenges.”

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