Anthropic Eyes IPO as Valuation Nears $1 Trillion
The company behind Claude said it had submitted documents to US regulators for an initial public offering later this year. Anthropic has not yet set the number of shares it plans to offer or the expected price range.
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has filed paperwork for a US stock market listing, setting up what could become one of the most closely watched public offerings in tech history.
The company behind Claude said it had submitted documents to US regulators for an initial public offering later this year. Anthropic has not yet set the number of shares it plans to offer or the expected price range.
The move comes as AI companies attract extraordinary private-market valuations, while investors try to determine whether the sector’s financial reality can match the hype. Anthropic, founded just five years ago by former OpenAI executives, recently raised funds at a valuation of more than $965 billion, putting it ahead of OpenAI’s latest reported valuation of $852 billion.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei launched the company after leaving OpenAI following disagreements with Sam Altman. Since then, the two firms have become central rivals in the generative AI market, competing for users, enterprise clients and developer adoption.
OpenAI is also reportedly considering a public listing, though Altman said Monday the company was not rushing.
“We’ll do it when it makes sense,” he told CNBC.
The timing places Anthropic’s IPO plans alongside another potentially massive listing: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is also preparing for a stock market debut. Together, the companies could bring an unprecedented wave of pre-IPO capital into public markets.
Analysts said Anthropic’s filing could become a test case for how investors value pure-play AI companies. Public markets will examine not only user growth and enterprise revenue, but also margins, infrastructure costs and whether the company can turn AI demand into sustainable profit.
Anthropic has told investors it expects to become profitable in the first half of this year, driven by growth in Claude and related services. That would set it apart from both SpaceX and OpenAI, neither of which is currently profitable.
The IPO will also force Anthropic to open its books through a public prospectus, giving investors their first detailed look at revenue, costs, risks and profitability. Given the giant valuations around AI, that document will be read like scripture, only with more spreadsheets and fewer miracles.
Anthropic is also carrying political and legal baggage. The company has clashed with the Trump administration and the US Department of Defense over contract language that would have allowed government agencies to use Claude for “any lawful use.” Amodei objected publicly, warning of possible use in mass domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons.
Trump later said the US would “never do business” with Anthropic again, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth banned US agencies from using Claude. Anthropic sued the government, though recent signs suggest tensions may have cooled.
The company’s listing will now test whether investors see those fights as a risk, or as secondary to the larger AI boom. Either way, Anthropic’s IPO could set the yardstick for the next generation of AI giants.