Anthropic Heads to IPO After Voters Opposed 40 of 41 Data-Center Measures

Anthropic's business customers are buying far more AI just as voters reject AI data centers at the ballot box.

Voters opposed data-center ballot measures in 40 of 41 cases, CNBC reported on November 7. More than half of voters told NBC News's exit poll that data centers were a crucial or major factor. That lands as Anthropic heads toward a Nasdaq debut that CNBC calls likely for mid-November. Investors now see a $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion valuation, down from $2 trillion, according to CNBC.

The backlash threatens Anthropic's compute capacity and its valuation, but its own filing points the other way on demand. CNBC notes that Anthropic sells primarily to businesses, and those buyers kept expanding.

Business buyers kept raising their spend

Anthropic's amended S-1, filed November 2, shows $33.2 billion in revenue for the first nine months of 2026, against $4.6 billion for all of 2025, Yahoo Finance reported. Most of it is metered, with consumption pricing making up the substantial majority of revenue, per GTMnow's reading of the filing.

More than 11,900 customers now spend at least $100,000, up from more than 950. That group brought in $24.5 billion, about 74% of the period's revenue. Net revenue retention runs near 900%, measured on the latest quarter against the same quarter a year earlier, with fixed-price subscribers left out.

Cloud marketplaces carried about 44% of nine-month revenue, and Anthropic still holds the customer contract. Sales, marketing and partnerships spend rose to $5.5 billion from $322 million. Anthropic is a usage-priced vendor, sold partly through the clouds and growing inside accounts that developers opened.

The exposure sits in capacity

None of this proves enterprise demand will survive the backlash. The filing's numbers stop at September 30, before the election, and no survey yet measures how B2B buyers reacted.

The filing's weak point is supply. Anthropic lists $895.4 billion in spending commitments, $69.8 billion of it due within 12 months, and Yahoo Finance reported both figures. CNBC says the prospectus also warns that organized opposition to data centers may target its projects. Usage revenue needs compute, so a stalled site caps what Anthropic can sell even while buyers keep asking.

Renaissance Capital's Matt Kennedy told CNBC that fears of extra scrutiny are overdone. In Kennedy's view, a public listing shouldn't draw harsher scrutiny than private rival OpenAI already faces.

The revenue, customer and retention figures are company-stated and unaudited. The retention number uses Anthropic's own method, and the filing gives no churn rate. The first outside test of the supply risk is the listing price, which CNBC expects in mid-November.

The backlash is a supply risk, and the demand numbers predate it

Anthropic is the company in the headlines, but the split applies to any vendor whose product runs on compute it doesn’t yet own. The filing shows business buyers raising usage through September, before the vote. The backlash could still limit how much the vendor can build, and how fast.

For GTM leaders selling AI, treating the backlash as a demand signal would mean discounting pipeline the filing says is still growing. The sharper question is whether a vendor can deliver the capacity a contract assumes, at the contracted price, if the sites it planned are among those voters opposed.

Renaissance Capital's Matt Kennedy told CNBC the opposite worry is overdone. In his view, a public listing shouldn't draw harsher scrutiny than private rival OpenAI already faces.

The vote didn't move the demand line. It moved the supply line, and that's the side of the contract to read.

By Business of GTM