Anthropic Files for IPO, CoreWeave Leads AI Infrastructure Stock Rebound

Anthropic filed for an IPO on Monday, and its prospectus shows that its revenue in the first half of this year reached $16.3 billion, up nearly 14-fold year over year. That figure far exceeded some investors' earlier pessimistic expectations, rapidly reversing sentiment on Wall Street.

On Tuesday, the Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.2%, extending Monday's 0.8% gain. AI cloud computing, storage, optical connectivity and other infrastructure sectors rose across the board, led by stocks that had previously been hit hard by interest rate concerns and macroeconomic pressure.

CoreWeave surged 8% on Tuesday, while Nebius Group rose even more, by 11.2%, making them the two standout AI infrastructure stocks of the day.

The storage sector benefited in tandem. Western Digital rose 7%, and Seagate Technology gained 3.7%.

In addition, Dell closed up 7.5% on Tuesday; the stock has already risen sharply this year on the AI server boom. Optical connectivity stocks Coherent rose 6.4% and Lumentum gained 5.9%. AI connectivity chip suppliers Credo and Astera Labs surged 10.8% and 10.5%, respectively.

Anthropic's long-term capital commitments to computing power directly validate the demand outlook for infrastructure segments such as new cloud service providers, storage and optical connectivity. Notably, this rebound came against the backdrop of Elon Musk publicly talking down the sector over the weekend—Musk predicted that a new generation of cloud service providers will face a capital squeeze. He said more than 200 new cloud service providers will face consolidation; some companies will survive, but not many. The market clearly chose to vote with its feet and ignored the warning.

Prospectus data is "stunning"; IPO may be heavily oversubscribed

InvestorPlace analyst Louis Navellier wrote in a note to clients that Anthropic's S-1 prospectus "is generating a great deal of excitement."

He directly pointed to the core data: first-half revenue of $16.3 billion, up nearly 14-fold year over year.

Although the company is still operating at a loss, Navellier believes this "stunning" revenue growth will drive the IPO to be "heavily oversubscribed"—that is, market demand for the shares will far exceed the actual amount issued.

Long-term capital commitments are the real logic behind the infrastructure stock rally

Rob Thummel, senior portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital, explained the investment logic behind the rally to MarketWatch.

"Anthropic has made a major long-term commitment to capital expenditure," he said. As demand for computing power continues to climb, demand for the infrastructure supporting these deployments will grow in tandem—directly benefiting new cloud service providers that rent computing power to customers.

Thummel also specifically mentioned a series of contracts Anthropic signed to lock in future computing power, saying they reflect confidence that market demand for AI infrastructure "will remain strong for a considerable period of time."

Lazard: The market still has ample appetite for this type of asset

Lazard Asset Management portfolio manager Celine Woo told MarketWatch that although the pricing and demand for Anthropic's IPO remain unclear, the prospectus itself is undoubtedly a bullish signal.

"From an investor perspective, the market still has ample appetite for assets with this type of business model," she said.

Anthropic's business model—and those of its competitors—requires large amounts of chips and computing power to keep running. This logic is supporting the entire AI supply chain.

Chip giants' earnings lend support; Big Tech keeps spending

Michael Field, chief European equity strategist at Morningstar, noted in a Monday report that ASML (up 2.9%) and TSMC (up 3%) both beat expectations on strong demand for advanced chip technology and gave an "optimistic outlook" for the industry.

But AI spending by Big Tech companies is also showing no signs of slowing. After reporting strong earnings last week, Meta announced on Monday that it plans to raise up to $95 billion through equity financing. Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon will report earnings in succession later this week. Risk disclosure and disclaimer

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