Anthropic pushes IPO at $965B valuation, expected as early as October

On August 11, sources said Anthropic is working to boost investor confidence in preparation for what could be the largest IPO in AI history. The AI startup, valued at $965 billion, targets a September or early October listing, ahead of arch-rival OpenAI's IPO (expected sometime next year).

Potential investors have raised concerns about Anthropic's challenges, including growing adoption of cheaper Chinese AI systems, tensions with the US government, and public backlash against data center construction. Anthropic has assured investors of its rapid growth pace while downplaying the threat from Chinese competition. Company executives have assured investors that Anthropic is intensely focused on developing more frontier AI models.

The company also disclosed to some investors its plans to expand into healthcare and biological AI applications. The company has not disclosed specific pricing plans or a timeline. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been named lead underwriters for the IPO, with JPMorgan expected to take a key role.

Thanks to its hit coding tool Claude Code, Anthropic has stood out in competition. Its annualized run-rate revenue passed $47 billion in May, far above OpenAI's roughly $25 billion.

Anthropic confidentially filed an S-1 draft with the SEC on June 1. In the $65 billion Series H closed in May led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, valuation jumped from $380 billion three months earlier to $965 billion. The company also entered a strategic partnership with AMD for up to 2GW of AMD Instinct MI450 GPU capacity, with the first GW expected to start deployment in the first half of 2027; AMD has also committed up to $5 billion of equity investment in Anthropic.