Anthropic Files for IPO, Signaling Resurgence in Public Markets
The AI startup behind Claude has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, potentially beating rival OpenAI to market.
"This filing positions Anthropic to potentially become one of the first major AI startups to go public, ahead of its primary rival, OpenAI."
IPO Filing Details
Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company founded in 2021 and headquartered in San Francisco, has confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO). The company stated on Monday that the IPO is subject to market conditions and SEC review; the number of shares to be offered and the price range have not yet been set.
OpenAI has also confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the SEC, according to the company. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has officially filed its prospectus and is expected to debut on the Nasdaq.
Analysts at Wedbush Securities noted that these filings signal a potential resurgence in the IPO market.
Financial and Valuation Context
Anthropic completed a $65 billion Series H funding round at a post-money valuation of $965 billion. The round was co-led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, with participation from Capital Group, Coatue, D1 Capital Partners, and others. This valuation surpasses OpenAI's $852 billion valuation from a funding round in late March.
Anthropic's valuation has increased rapidly: in February, it was valued at $380 billion after a Series G round, and a year prior, it was valued at $61.5 billion. The company has also received investment offers from venture capital firms valuing it at up to $800 billion, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, though a company spokesperson declined to comment.
Revenue Growth
Anthropic reported an annualized run-rate revenue of $47 billion as of May 2025, up from $10 billion at the end of 2024. The company stated that over 1,000 business customers are spending more than $1 million annually, a figure that has doubled in less than two months. Reports indicate Anthropic may report its first quarter of operating profit, though this figure may exclude certain expenses and will be verifiable only after the IPO filing becomes public.
Competitor Financials
OpenAI raised $122 billion in a funding round in late March. The company projects spending approximately $122 billion on computing power for AI research in 2028 alone and expects an $85 billion cash burn that year even after doubling sales year-over-year. According to its own projections, OpenAI will not generate positive cash flow for at least four more years.
SpaceX, which merged with xAI in February, is targeting an IPO at an estimated $1.75 trillion valuation, according to investors.
Product and Model Development
Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.8, described by the company as a "modest but tangible improvement" on its predecessor, with enhancements in agentic tasks, coding, and self-correction. The company also released Fable 5, the first widely available model from its new Mythos class of AI technology. Fable 5 is intended for writing and debugging code, answering complex research questions, and analyzing images. An unrestricted version, Claude Mythos 5, is being offered to organizations in Anthropic's Project Glasswing cybersecurity program, which expanded to about 200 organizations in over 15 countries.
Anthropic restricted access to the Mythos model due to its ability to identify vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure such as banking and power grids.
The company stated that most queries on cybersecurity, biology, or chemistry to Fable 5 will be redirected to the lower-tier Opus 4.8 model. Anthropic conducted red-teaming with over 1,000 hours of testing and a bug bounty program, reporting that no one fully unlocked the model.
OpenAI introduced a lower-priced ChatGPT tier and plans to add advertising, which is projected to become its largest revenue source by 2030. The company has expanded beyond ChatGPT, releasing a web browser, planning consumer hardware, and developing tools for government, health, and finance sectors.
Government Relations and AI Regulation
Anthropic co-founder and Head of Public Benefit Jack Clark confirmed that the company briefed the Trump administration about its new Mythos AI model. Reports indicated that Trump administration officials encouraged banks including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley to test the Mythos model.
The Trump administration has shifted its approach to AI regulation following the release of Anthropic's Mythos tool. The White House announced an agreement with Google, Microsoft, and xAI to allow the U.S. Commerce Department's Centre for AI Standards and Innovation to conduct pre-deployment evaluations and targeted research on AI models. President Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order to formalize early government access to frontier AI models. Previously, the administration had revoked Biden-era AI executive orders and labeled AI guardrails as "woke ideology."
Legal Dispute
In March, Anthropic filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense after the agency labeled the company a "supply-chain risk." Clark described this designation as a "narrow contracting dispute" and stated that Anthropic did not want it to overshadow the company's focus on national security. The dispute involved whether the military should have unrestricted access to Anthropic's AI systems for potential applications including mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. OpenAI secured the contract that was the subject of this dispute. The administration subsequently extended the "supply chain risk" declaration to other government agencies.
Enterprise Business Ventures
Anthropic announced a joint venture focused on deploying enterprise AI services, with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and Goldman Sachs as founding partners. The venture is valued at $1.5 billion, with $300 million commitments from Anthropic and its partners. Additional investors include Apollo Global Management, General Atlantic, GIC, Leonard Green, and Sequoia Capital.
Hours before Anthropic's announcement, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI is raising funds for a similar venture called The Development Company, at a larger scale: $4 billion from 19 investors against a $10 billion valuation. Investors include TPG, Brookfield Asset Management, Advent, and Bain Capital. There is no apparent overlap in investors between the two ventures.
Both ventures aim to raise money from alternative asset managers to create channels for enterprise AI deals, providing preferred sales access to investors' portfolio companies.
Compute Infrastructure
CEO Dario Amodei acknowledged that Anthropic has faced compute shortages, leading to outages and usage limits. To address this, the company announced a deal to rent AI compute from a data center operated by SpaceX. Following the announcement, Anthropic relaxed several rate limits, particularly for its Claude Code AI coding service. Amodei stated at the company's developer conference: "We've had difficulties with compute." A senior Anthropic executive privately admitted the company underestimated demand.
Alphabet announced a plan to sell $80 billion in stock to fund expansion of its artificial intelligence infrastructure. The fundraising includes public stock offerings, a long-term stock sale program, and a $10 billion private investment from Berkshire Hathaway.
Market and Investment Sentiment
The AI industry has seen significant capital investment, with major technology companies allocating hundreds of billions of dollars to data center construction and AI infrastructure. Analysts and investors have expressed differing views on the sustainability of these investments.
Owen Lamont, a portfolio manager at Acadian Asset Management, suggested the U.S. stock market is not experiencing an AI-driven financial bubble, citing the absence of significant equity issuance by corporations as a key indicator. John Higgins, chief markets economist at Capital Economics, concluded that the AI stock bubble has already burst, based on a decline in price-earnings ratios for information technology and Big Tech companies from their peaks in late 2024.
Michael Burry, known for his bet against the mid-2000s housing bubble, expressed skepticism regarding the current AI boom, cautioning that hyperscalers are allocating substantial capital to microchips and data centers that he believes will rapidly become obsolete. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, cautioned regarding the potential for an "AI frenzy" and its implications for financial markets.
Analysts at J.P. Morgan estimate that AI providers would require approximately $650 billion in annual revenue to achieve a 10% return on expected capital expenditure.
The Bank of International Settlements has warned that a decline in AI investment coupled with a stock market correction could lead to significant negative economic spillovers.