Anthropic files confidential IPO paperwork, targeting $965 billion valuation
The move follows a $65 billion fundraising round and positions the San Francisco-based company ahead of rivals OpenAI and SpaceX in the race for public capital, despite facing federal sanctions over its ethical stances on military use.
Anthropic has submitted confidential paperwork to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering, a filing that could value the artificial intelligence firm at $965 billion. The submission marks the first formal step in a potential public listing for the company, which aims to secure the vast capital required to fund expensive research and computing resources for frontier AI models.
The filing was confirmed in an unsigned blog post on Monday, with CEO Dario Amodei noting that the specific number of shares, the stock price, and the final valuation have not yet been determined. The company stated that the timing of the listing would depend on market conditions and other factors. The announcement comes shortly after Anthropic unveiled a $65 billion fundraising round, positioning it to compete for funding against rivals including OpenAI and SpaceX.
Anthropic’s entry into the public markets follows a broader surge in IPO activity within the AI sector. SpaceX confidentially filed its own paperwork in April and is targeting a June 12 stock market debut with a valuation of $1.75 trillion. Meanwhile, OpenAI is reportedly targeting its own public offering as soon as September. The three companies are racing to access public capital to pay for the cloud computing and staff costs associated with training increasingly capable models.
Despite the ambitious listing plans, Anthropic faces significant regulatory headwinds. Earlier this year, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth sanctioned the company under two government supply-chain laws, removing Claude models from military and federal agencies. Hegseth deemed Anthropic’s ethical stances, specifically its resistance to the unsupervised use of Claude in high-stakes scenarios, a national security threat. The company is currently suing to overturn these sanctions, with executives estimating the designations could cost billions of dollars in sales this year.
Financially, the company reported annualised revenue of $47 billion based on sales from an unspecified time frame last month. However, heavy spending on cloud computing and thousands of staff has resulted in losses. The IPO preparations involve complex processes, including shoring up accounting and tightening internal policies. If successful, the listing could turn tens or hundreds of employees into real millionaires or billionaires, while providing a significant return for large shareholders such as Amazon and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn.
The company’s corporate structure includes a Long-Term Benefit Trust, which may impact the valuation and timeline of the listing. Based in San Francisco, Anthropic has focused heavily on courting business customers, with its code-writing model, Claude Code, considered best-in-class. The confidential filing allows regulators to provide feedback on the document, which outlines the company’s goals, finances, and challenges, before any public debut occurs.
