Anthropic races toward a Wall Street debut with a confidential SEC filing

Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, has submitted a confidential filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering (IPO). The move marks a significant step toward going public, with the company stating that the IPO will depend on market conditions and other factors. Anthropic has not yet decided on the number or price of shares to be offered. The filing comes after Anthropic announced last week it had raised $65 billion in private funding, pushing its valuation to $965 billion. This makes the five-year-old company one of the world’s most valuable startups, surpassing its rival OpenAI, which has a reported $852 billion valuation. Anthropic now leads in both market value and reported revenue, with annualized revenue of $47 billion from selling its technology to users and organizations. Anthropic’s IPO filing positions it ahead of OpenAI and SpaceX in the race to become publicly traded companies. Both firms—OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and SpaceX, led by Elon Musk—have also been preparing for IPOs or major stock offerings. SpaceX’s valuation grew to $1.25 trillion after merging with Musk’s xAI in February, and Musk recently announced plans for a major stock sale. Analysts suggest Anthropic’s move could signal the opening of a long-dormant IPO market, with comparisons drawn to the early internet era when startups rushed to go public. However, concerns remain about the sustainability of AI companies, as all three firms—Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX—are currently operating at a loss. The race to IPO reflects growing investor interest in AI, though the long-term viability of these companies remains uncertain. Anthropic recently launched Claude Opus 4.8, its newest AI model, which it claims outperforms previous versions in coding and professional tasks. Despite OpenAI’s early lead with ChatGPT, Anthropic’s rapid growth has left the company playing catch-up. The upcoming IPOs of these AI giants could reshape the tech industry, but their financial stability and market performance will be closely watched.