
Wayve launches $85M employee tender offer at $8.5B valuation
Wayve’s offering is part of a growing trend of AI startups using employee tenders as a strategic tool to attract and retain talent.
Wayve, a U.K.-based self-driving tech startup, is offering its employees $85 million to sell portions of their vested equity at the company's current valuation of $8.5 billion. This type of arrangement, called a tender offer, allows employees to gain liquidity from their stock holdings before the company reaches an exit event like an acquisition or public listing. Tender offers have become increasingly common among AI startups as a retention tool, giving employees a way to realize some value from their equity without leaving the company, while also allowing investors to purchase additional shares at premium valuations. Wayve's offer is its second employee liquidity event and reflects a broader trend where investors are willing to provide funding for these opportunities because they believe the companies will be worth significantly more in the future.
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Anthropic sets IPO price range of $70 to $78 per share to reach an implied valuation of $1.404 trillion
The company could end up being worth a hefty $1.404 trillion if its shares list at the top of the price range, on a fully diluted basis.
Also reported by SiliconANGLE

Anthropic pushes ahead with pre-Thanksgiving IPO despite tech selloff, accepts lower valuation
Despite the tech selloff, Anthropic is pressing ahead with its IPO at a valuation of $1.25 to $1.75 trillion, well below the hoped-for $2 trillion. The Claude developer aims to raise $80 to $100 billion before Thanksgiving. Rival OpenAI has also recently had to cut its valuation. The article Anthropic pushes ahead with pre-Thanksgiving IPO despite tech selloff, accepts lower valuation appeared first on The Decoder.
Also reported by TechCrunch and The Verge

OpenAI valued at $1.25 trillion, as rival Anthropic nears its IPO
OpenAI is now valued at $1.25 trillion in a new round of funding that has raised another $11 billion, according to Bloomberg. That would make it one of the world's most valuable companies, not long after raising $122 billion from investors in March at a valuation of $852 billion. Echoing FT and Wall Street Journal reports from last week, Bloomberg says OpenAI is still pursuing additional investments that could increase the amount to $20 billion, and that it had initially hoped
Also reported by SiliconANGLE and The Decoder

Taiwan’s chipmaking giant TSMC to invest $1B in Anthropic, OpenAI
Top chip manufacturer TSMC is ready to invest $1 billion in Anthropic and OpenAI. That would give the Taiwanese chipmaker direct stakes in leading AI developers, even as its own contract chipmaking business has profited enormously from the AI data center buildout. The chipmaker’s board approved plans to invest up to $500 million in OpenAI preferred stock reserved for large investors and another $500 million to purchase Anthropic common shares at the latter’s expected IPO price, according to Reut

Anthropic Seeks Record $88.5B Tied To Public Market Debut
Anthropic is seeking to secure up to $88.5 billion in its planned IPO and a concurrent private placement, potentially making it the largest-ever fundraise tied to a public market debut. On Tuesday, the AI giant submitted an updated S-1 filing for its upcoming public offering, unveiling new details including a proposed share price range offering size. The offering could set a fully diluted valuation of up to $1.4 trillion for the San Francisco company. Anthropic’s expected valuation comes in belo

With $720M round, Britain’s Fractile gets a leg up in the race for AI chips
Fractile has now become one of the top-funded players in the race for purpose-built AI chips.