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NewslettersCEO Daily

A good buy or ‘the most ridiculous IPO of 2026’: Anthropic’s debut will be a referendum on AI

Diane Brady
By
Diane Brady
Diane Brady
Executive Editorial Director
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Diane Brady
By
Diane Brady
Diane Brady
Executive Editorial Director
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 27, 2026, 5:38 AM ET
Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei looks on as President Donald Trump speaks to the press after a meeting with technology executives about AI at the White House on Sept. 29, 2026.
Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei looks on as President Donald Trump speaks to the press after a meeting with technology executives about AI at the White House on Sept. 29, 2026.Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images
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  • In today’s CEO Daily: Top takeaways from Anthropic’s long-awaited S-1.
  • The big leadership story: Microsoft offers buyouts to 27% of its workforce.
  • The markets: Mixed globally as traders await corporate earnings.
  • Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. Anthropic has finally filed the paperwork for what could be the largest IPO of all time. My colleague Beatrice Nolan covers AI and has this smart piece. Here are some takeaways from me:

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The risk factors. Every prospectus contains a section on risk factors. This one starts on page 26 and ends 94 pages later. Almost one-third of the entire filing is filled with glimpses of what could go wrong. If you thought the SpaceX S-1 filing read like a sci-fi thriller, brace yourself for the prose from this part of the tech universe. Along with citing pedestrian risks like a shortage of compute or a reliance on too few customers, the company says its products may “displace or eliminate jobs, may be misused or otherwise cause harm and may pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.” Even if the human race does survive Anthropic’s innovative technologies, the filing warns the scale of harm could be so big that no single insurer or “potentially the insurance industry in the aggregate” could cover the damage. And Anthropic tosses in the possibility that its models could develop “forms of sentience.” Set against that dystopian landscape, “possible nationalization” might sound more like a potential plus than a peril to some readers. 

The ownership structure. Thanks to Google, Meta, and a range of other tech companies that went public, we’ve gotten used to dual-class stock structures that give the public a share of the company without giving them any say in how it’s run. Anthropic takes this to another level. The IPO will create a “Class F” share to be held by an LLC that’s owned by the seven co-founders. That share alone will carry 50.1% of the vote, giving each co-founder a say over the controlling vote even if they give away 98% of their shares. Is that the kind of hubristic myth-of-genius move that often drives proxy firms and large shareholders crazy? You bet. But University of Florida research also found that tech companies that have gone public with more than one class of stock have outperformed single-class tech companies. Founders of hot companies retain control because they can. The message: If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

The bottom line. Whether Anthropic is a good buy depends on a lot of factors, not least of which is the as-yet-unset price. While Morningstar is bullish that the leading AI labs are building economic moats, research firm New Constructs has dubbed it “the most ridiculous IPO of 2026.” SpaceX, which captured the hearts and minds of many a space traveler during its debut, is down almost 9% year to date. When Axios uploaded the S-1 to two frontier models, asking whether it was a good buy, Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 said yes “at a sensible price;” OpenAI’s rival ChatGPT gave it a thumbs down. But most of the human beings I’ve interviewed regard this IPO as a referendum on the current prospects for AI, arguing that the public’s appetite for a piece of Anthropic could affect enthusiasm for the sector as a whole.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top leadership news

Microsoft offers buyouts to about 60,000 employees as AI spending grows

Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to roughly 60,000 employees, or 27% of its workforce, as it trims costs while spending heavily on AI. A spokesperson told Fortune that U.S. employees who accept will receive at least eight weeks’ pay, along with continued stock vesting, health coverage, and career support.

P&G bets on premium products and cheaper options to boost sales

P&G posted its strongest organic sales growth in nearly three years by offering both cheaper options to cost-conscious shoppers and new premium products to those willing to spend more. Its Pampers Amore diapers, priced 10% above Pampers Swaddlers, are expected to generate $100 million in first-year sales.

Sandoz CEO warns Europe is too dependent on Chinese antibiotics

Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor told Fortune that Europe’s growing reliance on Chinese antibiotics puts its medicine supply at risk, with China accounting for 86% of EU imports of penicillin and its derivatives last year. He wants governments to pay more to sustain European production, arguing that rock-bottom prices make it difficult to compete with subsidized Chinese manufacturers.

The markets

S&P 500 futures are up 0.06% this morning. The last session closed up 0.70%. The STOXX Europe 600 was down 0.18% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.73% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.73%. South Korea’s KOSPI was up 3.09%. China’s CSI 300 was down 1.32%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.73%. India’s NIFTY 50 was up 0.04%. Bitcoin is at $80k.

Around the watercooler

EQT becomes the nation’s leading natural gas ‘juggernaut’ with a $13B deal as data center, export demand surges by Jordan Blum

AI’s boost to the U.S. economy is nearing its peak, Goldman says, as Apollo finds ‘zero financial payoff’ outside Big Tech by Nick Lichtenberg

Elon Musk warns more than 200 AI cloud companies face ‘guppy-level death’ as the AI boom runs into a debt crisis by Mia Osmonbekov

A $44 million superhero horror film won the box office this weekend. A $7 million documentary came within $5 million of beating it by Andrew McGowan

Trump promised 300,000 tons of beef imports at lower tariff rates to reduce grocery costs. Instead, shipments have lagged and prices haven’t budged by Sasha Rogelberg

CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.

This is the web version of CEO Daily, a newsletter of must-read global insights from CEOs and industry leaders. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
About the Author
Diane Brady
By Diane BradyExecutive Editorial Director
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Diane Brady writes about the issues and leaders impacting the global business landscape. In addition to writing Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter, she co-hosts the Leadership Next podcast, interviews newsmakers on stage at events worldwide and oversees the Fortune CEO Initiative. She previously worked at Forbes, McKinsey, Bloomberg Businessweek, the Wall Street Journal, and Maclean's. Her book Fraternity was named one of Amazon’s best books of 2012, and she also co-wrote Connecting the Dots with former Cisco CEO John Chambers.

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