Anthropic, the five-year-old company behind Claude, filed on Monday for an initial public offering that could be the largest ever. Investors are considering potential valuations in the trillions of dollars. Anthropic will become the third company to list above a $1 trillion valuation, following Saudi Aramco and SpaceX, which debuted in June. OpenAI has filed confidentially but has said an offering probably will not happen until 2027.
Anthropic's offering has become particularly consequential as AI-related stocks weaken and interest rates rise. Neocloud and data center stocks have fallen sharply, prompting Australia's Firmus and SK Hynix's US-based Solidigm unit to abandon IPO plans. Anthropic is counting on investors to overlook losses exceeding $80 billion in the first half of the year. Anthropic is presenting 14-fold revenue growth as evidence of apparently unrelenting demand for the company's models and services. Second-quarter revenue rose to $11.56 billion from $787 million a year earlier as businesses adopted Anthropic's coding and productivity tools. Anthropic reported $974 million in second-quarter operating income after five quarters of operating losses. Anthropic held almost $132 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at the end of June.
Anthropic generates nearly half of revenue through Claude sales via the cloud businesses of Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, all investors in Anthropic. The IPO allows approximately $77 billion in notes to be issued to Amazon, Broadcom and Google. Microsoft and Nvidia agreed to invest $15 billion as Anthropic expands computing capacity. Anthropic uses chips from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon and Google for development. Cloud providers are increasing capital spending to meet demand, while memory manufacturers face shortages as the manufacturers prioritize AI chips. Alphabet, which has an investment-grade credit rating, committed to providing financial backing for Anthropic for a Texas data center. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan told analysts earlier this year that Broadcom is establishing financing pools to help Anthropic and OpenAI deploy high-performance models.
Technology companies valued in the trillions account for more than one-third of the S&P 500's value, and those companies are investing heavily in AI. Adobe and Salesforce have also integrated Claude. Private-market investment amounts have expanded despite a scarcity of IPOs. Bessemer Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures each said Anthropic represents the firm's largest investment ever. FTV Capital managing partner Brad Bernstein warned that weak Anthropic performance would make Anthropic an AI bellwether and force a broader venture-AI valuation reset. Burnham Park Capital Markets partner and chief AI officer Rohit Kulkarni described Anthropic's financial results as better than feared, with fewer negative details than possible.
Cheaper open-weight models concern some investors because businesses can customize the models and choose where to access the models. Anthropic's prospectus identifies only OpenAI and Google by name as competitors but acknowledges wider competition, including open-weight and open-source models. Anthropic said Fortune 500 companies spent less than 0.1% of total expenses on Anthropic's models and services in the latest quarter. Founder ETFs portfolio manager Michael Monaghan said frontier and open-weight models can coexist and that predicting displacement is premature.
Hyperscaler spending on AI infrastructure is set to reach trillions of dollars. Sapphire Ventures co-founder Jai Das acknowledged concerns about excess capacity but said long-term demand is sufficient and warned that a disappointing IPO could destabilize the market. A disappointing Anthropic debut could further delay OpenAI's offering and prompt investors to reconsider OpenAI's high valuation. Higher interest rates are increasing the cost of corporate debt financing. New Constructs CEO David Trainer wrote last month that the AI boom depends on expectations of continued access to cheap credit and capital markets. Trainer warned that drying AI liquidity could drive a 20% S&P 500 decline, concentrated mainly in AI-related stock valuations.
Industry experts instead emphasize AI's capabilities and rapid adoption. Claude Opus 5.5 Max ranks above every other model on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index benchmark. Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said AI is becoming more essential and praised Anthropic and OpenAI for advancing innovation. Ramaswamy said Snowflake wants Anthropic and OpenAI to succeed as public companies. However, Snowflake is testing inexpensive open-weight models from China's Moonshot AI, DeepSeek and Zhipu. Ramaswamy said Snowflake spends heavily on internal AI to maximize efficiency.
Anthropic Files for IPO, Eyes Trillion-Dollar Valuation Amid AI Market Volatility
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Anthropic filed for an IPO amid market volatility, aiming for a trillion-dollar valuation. The AI firm reported $11.56 billion in Q2 2026 revenue and $974 million in operating income. Amazon, Broadcom, and Google received $77 billion in notes, while Microsoft and Nvidia pledged $15 billion for computing expansion. Rising interest rates and volatility in AI stocks pose risks, with concerns over open-weight models and market instability.
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