Nvidia’s record share buyback and Anthropic’s leaked IPO prospectus
This AI chip giant is using vast cash flows to buy its own shares, while we study details from Anthropic’s IPO prospectus. Graeme Evans reports.
29th September 2026 15:33
by Graeme Evans from interactive investor
A record-breaking bet on NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares has boosted Wall Street's AI trade in the build up to November's potential $2 trillion stock (£1.5 trillion) market debut of frontier lab Anthropic.
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The plans by Nvidia to use some of its vast cash flows to buy a further $150 billion of its own stock is a sign of confidence in prospects, particularly with shares in record territory.
The buyback figure beats the previous record of $110 billion set by Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) in 2024 and takes the value of Nvidia's ongoing programme to $235 billion.
The $150 billion increase, which is reported to exceed the market capitalisations of about 84% of the S&P 500 index, covers a period through the 2028 financial year.
In its second-quarter results on 26 August, the semiconductor giant said it would return $26 billion to shareholders via buybacks and through a plan to pay a dividend of 25 US cents a share on Thursday 1 October.
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The shares are up by more than 20% this year and 1,000% over the past five years, although at about $230 they are trading on some 16.5 times 12-month forward earnings.
Reuters noted last night that this is the lowest multiple since January 2015 and well below the 15-year average of 30, a potential sign of slowing profit-growth expectations.
The company's latest set of forecast-beating results showed that revenue for the second quarter rose 18% on the previous quarter to $96.2 billion, a jump of 106% on a year earlier.
Earnings lifted 3% quarter-on-quarter and by 128% year-on-year to $2.46 a share as founder and chief executive Jensen Huang said that AI had reached its inflection point.
He said last month: “This time last year, one lab alone was driving the buildout; today, we have a golden age of new AI labs and startups, multiple frontier labs scaling in parallel, a thriving open-model ecosystem and physical AI coming online - with strong momentum across the US and around the world.”
Huang added yesterday: “Our cash generation gives us the capacity to invest in the technologies that advance this transformation and return capital to shareholders. This authorisation reflects our confidence in the long-term opportunity ahead.”
In November 2025, Nvidia committed to invest up to $10 billion as part of a “deep technology partnership” to support Anthropic's future growth.
Anthropic's initial public offering (IPO) is due to take place after November's US mid-term elections, meaning that the company behind the Claude assistant will get in ahead of ChatGPT firm OpenAI after both filed confidential listing paperwork in June.
According to prospectus documents disclosed yesterday by Reuters, the company anticipates that AI will transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialisation, electricity and the internet.
A $2 trillion IPO valuation has been widely reported, more than June's Space Exploration Technologies Corp Class A (NASDAQ:SPCX) record of $1.77 trillion, and representing a big jump on Anthropic's last funding round in May at $965 billion.
The prospectus showed revenue jumped 12-fold in 2025 to nearly $4.6 billion, but with spending on compute and infrastructure up threefold last year at $7.3 billion. A near $42 billion net loss included a $34 billion accounting charge, Reuters added.
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Anthropic, which will become Wall Street's first pureplay AI stock, was founded in 2021 by seven former OpenAI executives as an AI safety and research company.
A successful IPO will reward early backers including Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google owner Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), as well as holders of Baillie Gifford's Scottish Mortgage Ord (LSE:SMT) investment trust and Baillie Gifford US Growth Ord (LSE:USA) trust.
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