Broadcom wins from Anthropic IPO on $161.2 billion deal

Anthropic's IPO is less a standalone event and more a capital-allocation signal. Anthropic is reportedly planning one of the largest AI build-outs ever to improve the productivity of what it calls "knowledge workers," who contribute more than $40 trillion in economic value globally, and that spending has to land somewhere. Broadcom is positioned as a direct recipient through its custom AI chip work and its existing TPU partnership with Alphabet, which underpins the Anthropic compute agreement.

The contrast with Recursion Pharmaceuticals is about timing and proof. Recursion was founded in 2013 and still has no drug on the market and no program in Phase 3 studies, evidence its AI-powered operating system has not yet demonstrated superiority. Meanwhile, Anthropic says nine of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies are clients contributing $100,000 or more in trailing 12-month revenue, suggesting AI drug discovery is becoming broadly available rather than a differentiator for any one biotech.

One caveat for Broadcom is margin mix: AI chips are an increasingly large share of total revenue, and the infrastructure software segment carries higher margins, so gross margins could come under pressure over the medium term. Even so, the piece concludes Broadcom's shares look attractive and Recursion's do not.