An AI price war could steal the thunder from pending Anthropic, OpenAI IPOs

The high price of high-end artificial intelligence could mean a price war is coming right before two more gigantic initial public offerings. Enthusiasm for the IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, expected later this year, could get zapped if they start trying to undercut each other on price in order to hold on to customers. After the successful IPO of SpaceX earlier this month at a valuation of $1.75 trillion, the Anthropic and OpenAI debuts as public companies are the next milestones in the economy's shift toward AI and automation. So investors are keeping close tabs on the pricing dynamics between the two frontier models. "OpenAI has been talking about lowering prices. Particularly as [OpenAI and Anthropic] ramp up for IPOs, if that triggers at least a temporary battle on price, then that might change," how their revenues work, Paul Meeks, head of technology research at Freedom Capital Markets, told CNBC earlier this month. The long-time analyst and investor still sees another two to three years, "well into 2028," for enormous AI infrastructure spending. Anthropic announced a $65 billion capital raise in May, giving the company a $965 billion valuation, and OpenAI closed a $122 billion funding round in March at a valuation of $852 billion. Both companies have filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission to start the IPO process. For now, investors are looking to dodge any potential AI price war by sticking to hardware makers and service suppliers. …