Anthropic, the frontier artificial intelligence lab led by CEO Dario Amodei, began pitching investors Tuesday on an initial public offering that would raise roughly $60 billion and value the company at about $1.3 trillion, according to a company announcement. The blockbuster listing on the Nasdaq would be one of the largest in Wall Street history and a critical test of investor appetite for the AI sector that has driven stock market gains — and much of President Donald Trump's economic story — for the past two years. Anthropic has already lined up roughly $26 billion in share purchases from a consortium of Big Tech heavyweights: Google, NVIDIA, Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, Micron Technology, Microsoft and TSMC Partners. Underwriters hold an option to buy an additional $10 billion in shares. The $1.3 trillion target is well below the $2 trillion figure that circulated earlier this year, a sign that even the most hyped AI names are being repriced as Wall Street grows more skeptical of the sector's sky-high valuations. The timing is delicate. Shares of major technology companies slumped after Democrats scored sweeping victories in last week's midterm elections, rattling investors who fear a new wave of AI regulation from Washington. The IPO will be watched as a referendum on whether the AI trade can survive a shifting political landscape. For the broader market, Anthropic's debut could either reignite enthusiasm for AI stocks or confirm fears that the boom has peaked. For the Trump economy, which has leaned heavily on tech-sector gains, the stakes are equally high. Amodei's company has positioned itself as a leading developer of advanced AI models, competing directly with OpenAI and other labs. Its decision to sell a large stake to corporate partners — rather than relying solely on public markets — underscores the deep entanglement between AI startups and the tech giants that supply their chips and cloud infrastructure. The roadshow launch sets up what is expected to be a frenzied few weeks of investor meetings before the shares officially price. If successful, the offering would mint a new class of AI billionaires and hand a massive payday to early backers, while giving ordinary investors their first direct stake in one of the most consequential technology companies of the decade.