Anthropic IPO share orders from China are said to be rebuffed

Agencies Anthropic is gearing up for its IPO, aiming to go public on the Nasdaq Synopsis Investors based in mainland China and Hong Kong are excluded from placing orders in Anthropic's IPO.

This decision reflects the strategic sensitivities between Washington and Beijing regarding technology advancements.

Some investors are exploring alternative methods to participate in the public offering through offshore structures.

Anthropic intends to complete its IPO on November 18, pricing the shares ahead of trading the next day.

By Dave Sebastian, Cathy Chan, Sangmi Cha and Dong Cao, Bloomberg Last Updated: Nov 13, 2026, 10:12:00 PM IST Follow us Institutional investors based in mainland China and Hong Kong have been excluded from placing orders in Anthropic PBC’s initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, highlighting the sensitivities around an industry both Washington and Beijing consider strategic.ADVERTISEMENT While some prospective investors are continuing to pursue possible ways to bid, several banks have either refused to take those orders or consider it unlikely that they would be able to get allocations, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

The constraints were partly due to the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which control the trade of defense products, some of them said.A representative for Anthropic declined to comment.

The situation echoes the $86.2 billion IPO of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, when underwriters were told not to accept orders from buyers in mainland China and Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter said, although investors in the two places were able to buy the stock after its listing.

Anthropic’s products aren’t available in China and Hong Kong.

The company recently blocked people traveling to those locations

Institutional investors from other jurisdictions, though, are normally able to participate directly through banks.ADVERTISEMENT In SpaceX’s case, Citigroup Inc., the coordinator of international distribution, notified syndicate banks that Chinese and Hong Kong investors were barred under ITAR.

Verbal communications with the New York-based syndicate team responsible for Anthropic allocations also indicated that ITAR restrictions prohibit investors from the China region from taking part, according to people familiar with the matter.

18 and trade the following day, according to terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg News.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are leading the offering, with participation from 20 other banks.

The stock is expected to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol ANT.ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Still, some investors are exploring ways to squeeze in.

A family office of a Chinese technology founder is placing orders for the Claude chatbot maker’s shares by using a trust domiciled in the British Virgin Islands, a person familiar with the matter said.

The outcome of the investor’s bid isn’t yet clear.Some investors are also looking to deploy special purpose vehicles and swap arrangements to get in on the deal, another person said.ADVERTISEMENT Hong Kong-based investors may still be able to submit bids through an offshore holding structure.

Whether they ultimately receive an allocation is up to the issuer and is unlikely to be addressed in formal written guidance, some of the people said.Representatives for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.ADVERTISEMENT Defense-Trade Controls San Francisco-based Anthropic, which with its co-founders is seeking to raise as much as $90.4 billion in an IPO and private placement at a $1.4 trillion valuation, didn’t outline selling restrictions to investors in mainland China and Hong Kong in its listing document.

But China has appeared, alongside countries like North Korea and Iran, in a list of US defense-trade controls.The company is locked in a legal battle over the Pentagon’s designation of it as a supply-chain risk to US national security.

Last month, the Trump administration asked an appeals court to overturn an order lifting the government’s ban on Anthropic’s AI technology for federal agencies.Anthropic is going public against the backdrop of intense competition in artificial intelligence between China and the US.

In its prospectus, the company cited increasing scrutiny from the US government on AI companies’ exposure to Chinese state actors and the escalation of tensions between the two countries among risks to its business.Anthropic said it was offering shares in Australia, Canada, certain members of the European Economic Area, Japan, Switzerland and the UK, apart from the US.

Arrangers of the deal may also offer shares outside those countries, it said in its listing document.

The company’s roadshow presentation could be viewed from Hong Kong on Friday, though no retail brokers in the city were included in the list of authorized distributors.

In June, SpaceX’s website was inaccessible from the city.Even with last week’s sharp selloff in AI-related stocks, frenzy is still building around the deal, with some backers offering a portion of their IPO allocation to new investors.