Anthropic is expected to go public on Thursday, Nov. 19, and its initial public offering (IPO) pricing is expected to fall in the range of $70 per share to $78 per share. On a fully diluted basis, the start-up could be worth approximately $1.4 trillion.

For investors, that figure signals that Anthropic is being valued more for what it could become than for what it is today.

Image source: Getty Images.

Paying up today

Anthropic is being valued as if its business is on course to be one of the world’s most valuable operations. If that isn’t the case, it simply wouldn’t make sense for its market cap to be greater than Walmart (WMT +1.29%) ($1 trillion) or Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA +0.09%)(BRKB +0.08%)($1.3 trillion).