CNBC host Jim Cramer said Monday that large fundraising plans tied to potential IPOs could draw investor money from listed shares, threatening the broader market rally.
CNBC reported that companies had raised $148 billion through IPOs so far this year. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, filed an IPO prospectus Monday, the network said. Investors have also been awaiting possible offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI, CNBC reported.
Cramer said the central issue was how much capital companies might seek, not whether leading technology firms had viable businesses. He said many already have operations and customers, unlike speculative internet startups of the dot-com era.
Cramer also drew a historical comparison to the 2000 market collapse. He said the dot-com boom brought a surge in stock sales that investors struggled to absorb, contributing to the downturn.
For the current market, he warned that money used to buy newly issued shares might otherwise go to the S&P 500 and other stocks, CNBC reported. The potential fundraising needs of Anthropic and OpenAI could add to that competition for investor funds. The concern, as CNBC described it, is that investor demand may not keep pace with an increase in new shares.
Cramer cited Meta, Alphabet, SpaceX and Oracle as companies raising capital, CNBC reported. The network also said the portfolio of Cramer's Charitable Trust, run by CNBC's Investing Club, includes shares of Meta and Alphabet.
In an earlier EconoTimes report on Cramer's tests for an AI-stock rebound, he discussed how a large Anthropic offering could draw funds away from other AI stocks.
Cramer said his comments did not amount to calling a market peak. “I am not calling a top,” he said. He added, “I think both the debt and the equity markets are running out of money.”
