TSMC Partners Plans Smallest Purchase in Anthropic’s $26 Billion Placement

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) approved up to $500 million for Anthropic shares, with TSMC Partners, Ltd. named for the smallest purchase in a planned $26 billion placement.

The seven buyers plan to purchase shares after the IPO closes, making the transactions conditional. The placement has not been completed.

At the assumed price of $74 per share, Google and NVIDIA are each listed for about $10 billion, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for about $2.5 billion, and Broadcom, Micron and Microsoft for about $1 billion apiece. TSMC Partners’ planned $500 million purchase is the smallest of the seven. The amounts total $26 billion.

Anthropic estimates the IPO and placement would generate $84.6 billion in net proceeds in a base case that assumes a $74 share price and excludes full exercise of the underwriters’ option. The estimate rises to $93.7 billion if the option is exercised in full. The placement is about 31% of the $84.6 billion base-case total.

At $74 per share, TSMC Partners’ planned purchase would cover 6,756,756 Class N common shares. That is about 0.05% of Anthropic’s 13.09 billion shares outstanding after the offering and placement. Class N shares have no voting rights except as required by law, but carry the same dividend and liquidation rights as Class A shares.

Anthropic identifies chip supply as a risk linked to TSMC. The company says TSMC has at times been unable to meet all market demand for manufacturing capacity, which can leave Anthropic without enough chips on time. Anthropic also says most of the world’s most advanced chip-manufacturing capacity is concentrated in Taiwan, primarily at TSMC.

At the same Nov. 10 board meeting, TSMC approved up to $500 million for preferred stock in OpenAI Group PBC and about $40.9 billion in capital appropriations. The two AI investments have a combined ceiling of $1 billion. TSMC Partners’ planned Anthropic purchase remains contingent on the IPO closing.