NH-Amundi Asset Management: "Anthropic Listing to Spur Reassessment of AI Industry"

November Monthly Report Published
Challenge of Verifying AI Profitability Comes into Focus

NH-Amundi Asset Management said on November 4 that it had published its November edition of the HANARO ETF Monthly Report, which covers Anthropic's planned listing.

Following SpaceX last month, hyperscalers including Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta reported their third-quarter results. Driven by demand for AI infrastructure, revenue from SpaceX's AI computing business exceeded half of its total revenue, while Microsoft and Alphabet also recorded strong growth in their cloud businesses. Alphabet, however, saw its share price weaken as growth in search and YouTube advertising slowed and free cash flow (FCF) posted a deficit of $9.07 billion.

The report said the market had begun evaluating AI companies based on their ability to generate cash, as the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds rose to the 5% range, its highest level since 2002. However, because earnings from big tech companies combine AI revenue with revenue from their existing businesses, it is difficult to determine whether AI itself is generating profits. This has drawn attention to Anthropic's listing, as all of its revenue comes from AI.

Anthropic began the listing process on October 26 by making its registration statement (S-1) public. According to the filing, Anthropic generated approximately $16.3 billion in revenue in the first half of this year, about 14 times more than in the same period a year earlier. The report said the economics of AI models were improving as revenue grew faster than computing costs.

The report said that, following enterprise agents and coding, "AI for Science," including drug discovery and advanced materials research, could become the next growth driver. It said a virtuous cycle could emerge in which revenue from AI models leads to investment in computing infrastructure, and the expanded infrastructure in turn boosts model performance and demand.

The report identified slowing growth and the burden of large-scale computing commitments as factors to watch after Anthropic's listing. It also said investors should select companies closely connected to actual demand, since the benefits are unlikely to be distributed evenly across the AI supply chain.

NH-Amundi Asset Management recommended the HANARO U.S. Agentic AI TOP2+ ETF, which selects and invests in key companies across the AI value chain. Listed in September, the ETF invests in both big tech companies such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Amazon, and AI infrastructure and security companies such as CrowdStrike and Dell Technologies.

Kim Seungcheol, head of ETF Investment at NH-Amundi Asset Management, said, "This listing of Anthropic will be a milestone that broadens the scope of AI investing, which has so far focused on semiconductors and cloud services, as it marks the first frontier AI model company to list on a U.S. stock exchange. For investors focused on the profitability of agentic AI and new growth opportunities, the HANARO U.S. Agentic AI TOP2+ ETF could be an effective investment alternative."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.