Bloomberg: investors push back on AI valuations as IPOs and stock sales stall

Firmus stumbles, Nscale faces pushback

Firmus is the clearest example so far. The AI data center company's IPO collapsed within 48 hours in mid-October after it failed to attract enough investor interest, according to Bloomberg's reporting.

Nscale comes next. Bloomberg reported that Nscale Ltd. is pursuing a valuation of roughly $30 billion for its upcoming IPO, and that unnamed investors haven't bought the number.

Investors are pushing back, with estimates suggesting a more realistic range of $16 billion to $19 billion.

Crypto Briefing's own view is that where Nscale prices will say a lot about the sector. If it lists near the $30 billion target, the outlet argued, the Firmus collapse would look like a local stumble rather than a sector-wide signal. Pricing in the $16 billion to $19 billion range, it said, would confirm that the market is repricing AI infrastructure across the board.

The private giants aren't exempt

The report also put the largest private AI labs under the same lens.

OpenAI's valuation has ranged from more than $500 billion to $852 billion, based on employee share sales, according to the report. Anthropic has eyed a potential IPO at roughly $2 trillion (the report's figure, not a confirmed listing plan). Investors are now weighing both numbers against revenue trajectories and profitability metrics, the report said.

Public markets already felt it

Listed stocks have been sending a similar message for a while. Semiconductor, hyperscaler and software names have all gone through sell-offs, according to the report, and the concern behind them is that productivity and revenue gains haven't kept pace with heavy AI spending.

That spending surge dates back to 2022 and 2023. Rapid advances in generative models back then fueled large expectations, and the report describes investors now holding AI companies' valuations up against the revenue and profitability those companies have actually produced.