Anthropic’s third-quarter revenue grew 45% from the previous quarter, but a slower pace than the spring’s near-tripling has left some investors weighing a valuation well below the $2 trillion the market had been pencilling in for its November stock market debut.

At an investor day on October 14, Anthropic said revenue for the quarter reached $16.8 billion and that the company was profitable on an adjusted basis, according to reports. The Financial Times reported that the company described itself as cash-flow positive for the quarter. The figures sit against $4.7 billion in first-quarter revenue and $11.6 billion in the second. Because the second quarter more than doubled the first, the 45% rise in Q3 reads as a slowdown, even though it adds more than $5 billion of quarterly revenue in absolute terms.

The valuation question is now live. Reuters reported that some investors have discussed a valuation of about $1.5 trillion for the share sale, below the roughly $2 trillion the market had expected. That is investor conversation rather than a set price or range, and Anthropic has not published either. For comparison, the company’s Series H round in May valued it at $965 billion, so even $1.5 trillion would be more than 1.5 times that figure.

The bullish case remains. An early backer told Fortune he expects the offering to be priced around $1.8 trillion, with trading possibly reaching $2.3 trillion to $2.4 trillion. Analysts have estimated that Anthropic’s annualised revenue run rate could reach $110 billion by the end of the year. Reuters also reported that the debut is likely to slip until after the US midterm elections.

The same prospectus material that supports the growth story carries a heavy cost side. Reuters, which reviewed a leaked prospectus in September, reported a 2025 net loss of about $42 billion, mostly a non-cash accounting charge, and at least $518 billion in cloud and compute commitments over the next decade, about 80% of them non-cancellable or payable whether or not the capacity is used. Those figures predate the company’s public filing on October 26, and later reports describe the commitments differently.

For the wider industry, the pricing is the signal. A debut at $1.5 trillion would still make Anthropic one of the most valuable listed technology companies, but it would show that public investors are paying for growth that is slowing from a very fast pace. A rival’s decision on when to go public, including OpenAI’s, is likely to take its cue from how the shares trade.