Anthropic, the AI lab behind the Claude chatbot, is preparing to go public in what could become one of the largest initial public offerings in history. The company filed a confidential registration statement with the SEC on June 1 and plans to publicly unveil its IPO prospectus after Labor Day on September 7, with a listing potentially arriving as soon as late September or early October.

The numbers behind the hype

Anthropic's annualized revenue run-rate reached approximately $47 billion as of early May, up from around $9 to $10 billion at the end of 2025. The company is on track to post its first expected quarterly operating profit of approximately $559 million in Q2 2026.

Anthropic completed a $65 billion Series H funding round that pushed its post-money valuation to $965 billion. In total, the company has raised over $130 billion in private capital. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan are lined up as lead underwriters.

The sheer scale of that fundraising reflects the capital intensity of frontier AI development, where training and serving large models requires billions of dollars in computing infrastructure. The public prospectus will be the first detailed disclosure of Anthropic's financials, giving outside investors their first audited look at revenue composition, margins, and spending commitments behind the $47 billion run-rate.

The IPO structure may include secondary sales from existing shareholders, giving early investors and employees a chance to cash out some of their holdings. Lockup periods could extend beyond the typical 180 days.

A record-setting debut

If the offering proceeds as expected, Anthropic's IPO could surpass SpaceX's record-breaking public debut of $86 billion in June 2026, which would make it the largest IPO in history.

Anthropic's Claude models compete directly with OpenAI's offerings across coding, enterprise workflows, and general-purpose AI applications. The company was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers, including siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei.

What this means for markets

OpenAI, Anthropic's primary rival, has explored its own path toward a public offering. An Anthropic IPO would raise the stakes considerably, forcing OpenAI to clarify its own corporate structure and timeline.

A listing of this size would also test public-market appetite for AI companies whose valuations have so far been set in private rounds. The confidential filing gives Anthropic flexibility on timing, allowing the company to test SEC feedback before going public with its financials. If market conditions deteriorate between now and the fall, the company could delay. Key details to watch when the prospectus goes public include how revenue is concentrated among Anthropic's largest customers, the pace of spending on compute, and the final valuation range set with underwriters.