Key points
- Banks are turning away some Anthropic IPO orders from China and Hong Kong
- Anthropic's prospectus lists selling restrictions for 25 markets, excluding Hong Kong
- Anthropic says some of its AI products could fall under US arms export rules
Institutional investors in mainland China and Hong Kong are facing difficulty getting shares in Anthropic's (ANT) IPO. Several banks working on the offering have refused their orders or consider it unlikely they can secure shares for them, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 13.
The limits are partly due to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, US rules governing trade in defense products, according to the report. Some investors are still looking for ways to bid.
Anthropic plans to price the IPO on Nov. 18 and begin trading on Nasdaq on Nov. 19. The reported limits concern orders for shares allocated in the IPO. Buying shares on Nasdaq after trading starts is a separate process.
Anthropic's prospectus doesn't list Hong Kong
Anthropic's amended IPO filing, dated Nov. 10, lists selling restrictions for 25 markets, including Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea. Hong Kong isn't among them, and the words "Hong Kong" don't appear elsewhere in the filing.
That omission alone doesn't show that Hong Kong investors are barred from the offering. The entries describe how shares can be offered in the places listed.
For comparison, Cerebras Systems (CBRS) included a Hong Kong entry in its final IPO prospectus in May. SpaceX's (SPCX) final prospectus for its June IPO doesn't mention Hong Kong.
The filing says some Anthropic products could fall under arms export rules
Anthropic's filing says its models, platform, and applications are subject to US export controls, though its commercially available products "generally can be exported without an export license." The products may be controlled under Commerce Department export rules or, "in more limited circumstances," under ITAR, which the State Department runs. "In certain contexts, the provision of our models, platform, and applications may constitute export of defense articles or defense services subject to the ITAR," the filing says.
The filing also says people of certain nationalities may need US government permission to access some of Anthropic's technology or source code, "including within the United States."
In June 2026, the Commerce Department imposed worldwide export restrictions on Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models. Anthropic disabled both models for all customers and brought them back after it updated its safeguards and the department lifted the restrictions, according to the filing.
Anthropic already bars Chinese-controlled companies from using Claude
In September 2025, Anthropic banned companies controlled from China and other unsupported regions from using its services, wherever those companies operate. The ban covers any company more than 50% owned, directly or indirectly, by companies headquartered in those regions.
That policy covers who can use Anthropic's AI models. It isn't a rule about who can own Anthropic's shares.
The IPO filing says the US government "has increasingly scrutinized AI companies' exposure to Chinese state actors." Future rules could restrict Anthropic's ability to serve customers or users connected to China, the filing says. It also says that in September 2025, Anthropic found that a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group had used its Claude Code tool to try to break into about 30 targets around the world.
Anthropic is also fighting the Pentagon's decision to label the company a supply chain risk. Our Anthropic lawsuit tracker follows that case.
