Robinhood in ‘Food Fight’ for Anthropic IPO Retail Allocation

(Bloomberg) -- Robinhood Markets Inc. is competing with other retail brokerages to fight for access to Anthropic PBC's mega-IPO.

The firm fields demand from its clients for access to shares in an initial public offering, then sends it to the company going public and the banks handling the stock sale, Robinhood Chief Financial Officer Shiv Verma said Monday in a Bloomberg Television interview.

"It's a food fight out there, so we're going to let our demand speak for itself, and then let the companies decide," Verma said.

When SpaceX went public in June, all eligible customers putting in requests for shares with platforms run by Robinhood and competitors Charles Schwab Corp., Fidelity Investments, SoFi Technologies Inc. and Morgan Stanley's E*Trade were allocated some stock. Leading up to the event, the firms jockeyed for a greater allocation, given that retail clients are often at a disadvantage in accessing pre-IPO companies.

Verma said that SpaceX wanted to allocate around 15% to 20% to retail investors, while Robinhood set aside 20% of is own shares for such clients during its own IPO.

"What we are making sure the companies know is, retail is here, they are a force to stay, and given they're 20% to 25% of the equities market, they should consider a large allocation to retail," Verma said.

Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot, filed on Oct. 26 for an IPO slated to occur before the US Thanksgiving holiday later this month. The company disclosed Monday that it plans to spend more than $895 billion in the years ahead.

With assistance from Tim Stenovec and Carol Massar.