Anthropic Files Confidential IPO Prospectus, Targeting a Trillion‑Dollar Valuation

Anthropic submitted a confidential Form S‑1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating its intention to go public and giving it a potential first‑mover advantage over OpenAI in the upcoming IPO competition.

Founded in 2021, the startup grew from $10 million in annual revenue in 2022 to an annualized revenue figure of roughly $47 billion, representing a valuation increase of about 15× within the past 14 months.

In the week prior, Anthropic released the new Claude Opus 4.8 model and announced a $65 billion Series H financing round that raised its post‑money valuation to $965 billion—surpassing OpenAI’s recent $730 billion valuation. Earlier, after a Series G round the company was valued at $380 billion, and in March 2025 its valuation was reported at $61.5 billion.

Anthropic pays SpaceX roughly $1.25 billion per month for GPU compute, while SpaceX itself is preparing an IPO, creating a mutual “blood‑transfusion” relationship.

The firm faces a pending $1.5 billion copyright settlement—the largest ever in U.S. history—stemming from the use of pirated books during model training.

The submitted S‑1 is a confidential version; no audited financial statements have been made public.

The frequently cited $47 billion “revenue” figure is actually an annualized rate derived by multiplying a single month’s revenue by 12; actual revenue is considerably lower.

Google holds about 14 % of Anthropic’s equity but lacks voting rights; real control rests with a trust that appoints most board members.

Anthropic is organized as a Public Benefit Corp, obligating its board to consider benefits to humanity, not just shareholder returns.

Amazon has invested heavily in Anthropic but does not hold a board seat.

All founders are former OpenAI employees.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to the news, stating that the fiercest competition in AI is not about who lists first on Wall Street but about delivering the best technology, and that an IPO is merely a financing activity.

Alongside Anthropic, two other AI‑related companies—OpenAI and SpaceX (which has merged with xAI)—are also preparing IPOs this year, with SpaceX targeting a valuation of $1.75 trillion, potentially setting a new record.

In the current AI landscape, Anthropic faces intense rivalry: OpenAI is shifting focus to its Codex code‑generation tool, while Elon Musk has agreed to collaborate with, and possibly acquire, the AI‑coding startup Cursor. Meanwhile, SpaceX supplies Anthropic with the compute power needed for its models.

These IPOs are poised to become some of the largest ever, potentially reshaping investment logic and employee wealth, and could make Elon Musk, who owns roughly 50 % of SpaceX, the world’s first trillion‑dollar billionaire. Because both Anthropic and OpenAI have pledged to donate most of their shares to charitable causes, the listings could also channel substantial new funds to nonprofit organizations.

References: Reuters (2026), The New York Times (2026), Business Insider (2026).