🤖 Anthropic's IPO meets an AI sell-off
AI’s bill comes due.
Oil adds a surcharge.
- Chip stocks dragged the Nasdaq sharply lower, even as two in three S&P 500 stocks rose.
- Anthropic could reveal its IPO prospectus as soon as Friday, a live test of AI appetite.
- Oil hit a five-month high, yet Treasury yields fell as investors chose safety over inflation fears.
🔀 Wall Street sells AI and buys the rest
What happened?
Thursday was a split screen. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.6% and the S&P 500 had its worst day since July, yet the Dow finished flat and two in three S&P 500 stocks rose. Chipmakers led the slide, with an index of chip stocks down more than 6%: Lam Research fell 11.8% even after beating forecasts, and Nvidia lost 4.4%, the S&P 500’s biggest drag. CoreWeave dropped 10.1% on debt worries, while Procter & Gamble rose 5.6% on a profit beat. AP linked the selling to worries that costly borrowing for data centres and chips could squeeze the AI boom.
Why it matters
This looks more like a rotation than a rout: money left richly valued AI stocks for steadier earners. Malaysian investors holding regional tech or semiconductor funds should expect bigger swings while borrowing stays expensive, so don’t read too much into one session.
🤖 Anthropic’s IPO meets an AI sell-off
What happened?
Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI models, could make its IPO prospectus public as soon as Friday, US time, three people told Yahoo Finance. That would clear the way for a listing as early as November. Wall Street has talked of raising up to $100 billion at a $2 trillion valuation, but Reuters reports some investors now discuss about $1.5 trillion after growth slowed. A draft prospectus showed an $80.7 billion first-half net loss, mostly non-cash accounting charges, and more than $600 billion in long-term computing contracts with Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and others.
Why it matters
This is the biggest test yet of what public investors will pay for AI, and it lands straight after Thursday’s sell-off. Those computing contracts are revenue for cloud giants and chipmakers, so the prospectus matters well beyond one company. A price nearer $1.5 trillion would signal a cooler appetite for the whole AI trade.
Anthropic’s sales jump is getting smaller
Anthropic quarterly revenue, 2026 · US$ billion
Source: Reuters, from figures Anthropic gave investors; unaudited until the public prospectus. Some reports put Q2 at $11.5 billion.
🏦 Oil says hike. Bonds say hold.
What happened?
Brent settled at $113.17 a barrel, up 4% and its highest since May, after Houthi attacks on Saudi targets. Dearer oil usually lifts bond yields by stoking inflation fears. Instead the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.97% from 5.13%, and from above 5.30% earlier this month, as investors bought bonds for safety during the AI sell-off. Traders also trimmed bets on a December Fed hike to roughly 80%. The oil bill is real, though: American Airlines’ quarterly fuel costs rose $1.9 billion from a year earlier, and it now expects a full-year loss.
Why it matters
For now, the bond market fears a growth and AI shock more than oil-driven inflation; if Brent stays above $110, that bet gets harder to hold. For Malaysia, lower US yields tend to ease pressure on the ringgit, while dearer crude lifts Petronas’s payouts but also the fuel-subsidy bill.