Anthropic is weighing the release of a new flagship artificial intelligence model as rivalry with OpenAI intensifies — a deliberation arriving just as the company prepares for a potential stock market entrance that could value it at close to $2 trillion. The AI developer finds itself at a crossroads: deciding whether to accelerate a cutting-edge product launch while simultaneously laying the groundwork for a public listing.

A November IPO remains on the table. In a post on X citing a Wall Street Journal report, financial commentary outlet The Kobeissi Letter wrote:

“BREAKING: Anthropic is planning to launch its IPO in November despite AI safety concerns, per WSJ. The company is expected to IPO at a $2 trillion valuation and raise up to $100 billion in the offering. Anthropic is expected to reach more than $110 billion in annualized revenue…”

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) September 18, 2026 · View post on X

According to Reuters, Anthropic is reassessing its timeline for launching a new model in response to OpenAI's September 3 debut of GPT-6 Astra. Additional reports suggest the AI developer may aim for a November timeframe to go public. The strategic consideration arrives as the company lays the groundwork for its possible public market debut — and it illustrates how closely product strategy and capital-markets strategy have become entwined for the leading AI developers.

Discussions around the offering indicate a potential company valuation approaching $2 trillion, with capital-raising targets reaching $100 billion — a scale that would place the deal among the largest public offerings on record. Those figures, however, remain under negotiation. Critical IPO details — including the designated exchange, ticker symbol, lead underwriters, and share count — have not been disclosed through any public filing. Such parameters typically surface in regulatory filings in the run-up to a listing, making those documents the first hard markers of how the offering is taking shape.

OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra Captures Market Share

Since its launch, OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra has demonstrated strong momentum within the enterprise sector. According to corporate spending analytics from Ramp, Astra has captured approximately 13% of tracked enterprise AI expenditures. By comparison, Anthropic's Claude Fable commands roughly 8% of that market — figures that underscore how quickly spending patterns are shifting toward OpenAI's newest system. Spending trackers of this kind have become a closely watched gauge of enterprise adoption because they capture what organizations actually pay for rather than headline benchmarks.

A notable shift occurred on developer platform OpenRouter last week, where OpenAI surpassed Anthropic for the first time in more than two and a half years. The platform aggregates developer spending across competing AI providers, making its rankings a frequently cited barometer of where builder demand is flowing. Users of the platform allocated more spending to OpenAI's offerings than to Anthropic's models, marking the first change at the top in that span.

The competitive jockeying has drawn public commentary from industry executives. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire addressed the debate around Anthropic's timing on X:

“Take the Leap, @Anthropic There's been a lot of debate about whether now is the right moment for Anthropic to complete its IPO. Markets are jittery, the calendar is crowded, the valuation conversation is loud. And most importantly, there are valid, serious concerns about the…”

— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) September 18, 2026 · View post on X

Despite the competitive pressure, Anthropic maintains a stronger reported revenue position. Reuters data shows the company's annualized revenue surpassed $65 billion through the end of July — a more than sevenfold increase from the approximately $9 billion recorded at the conclusion of 2025. Meanwhile, OpenAI's annualized revenue rate crossed $40 billion in July.

Looking further ahead, Anthropic has internally projected revenue ranging from $190 billion to $200 billion by 2028. Sources familiar with investor expectations suggest the company's annualized revenue could top $110 billion before 2026 concludes — a level well above the pace recorded through July.

Strategic Decisions Loom for Anthropic's Future

The company is conducting safety evaluations for its upcoming model while determining the optimal release timing, Reuters reports. The deliberation comes on the heels of a September 12 statement from CEO Dario Amodei advocating that the AI industry moderate the velocity of capability advancements — a stance now set against mounting competitive pressure to ship.

Anthropic faces the additional challenge of balancing investment in model development against profitability goals, particularly as computational expenses remain substantial — a trade-off that typically draws close examination in the run-up to a public listing.

The IPO timeline could potentially shift to follow the U.S. midterm elections in November. However, Reuters indicates the election outcome is unlikely to significantly influence the offering itself.

Separately, Meta Platforms is reportedly working to decrease its dependence on Anthropic's models while expanding its internal AI infrastructure, shifting more of its AI workloads in-house. The competitive landscape also includes open-source and open-weight alternatives, which enable organizations to execute AI tasks independently of the major commercial platforms.

For now, Anthropic continues to evaluate both its model launch strategy and its November IPO prospects. The company has yet to confirm specific dates, final valuation figures, or offering parameters. The most concrete signals in the weeks ahead will be procedural: any public filing disclosing offering details, the outcome of the ongoing safety evaluations, and any confirmed release date for the next model — each of which would settle one of the questions still open on the company's parallel tracks.

This article originally appeared on Blockonomi.