Anthropic has filed confidential plans for an initial public offering, marking a major step toward a potential share sale that could place the artificial intelligence startup in the trillion-dollar valuation bracket as competition intensifies with rivals such as OpenAI.
The company has not yet disclosed how many shares it intends to offer or at what price range.
However, it confirmed that it has submitted a confidential registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission, laying the groundwork “for a proposed initial public offering of our common stock,” Anthropic said.
The move places Anthropic among a wave of highly anticipated AI listings expected this year, alongside potential public offerings tied to OpenAI and SpaceX.
The developments could open the door for retail investors to access some of the most valuable private AI firms, while giving early backers the opportunity for multibillion-dollar exits.
SpaceX disclosed its own IPO intentions late last month, though it also stopped short of providing details on valuation or fundraising targets.
PitchBook analyst Harrison Rolfes noted that the scale of these expected listings is unusual, saying “represents the largest concentration of pre-IPO capital ever brought to market simultaneously,” Harrison Rolfes, senior late-stage company research analyst at PitchBook, said in an email.
A public listing would also open Anthropic’s financials to greater scrutiny at a time when concerns about an AI investment bubble continue to circulate.
The company’s valuation has climbed sharply this year, rising from $380 billion in February to $965 billion in May, while it has also signed multi-billion-dollar agreements with major tech partners.
In April, it said it is committing more than $100 billion in Amazon Web Services infrastructure to train and operate its AI systems.
Despite that momentum, some analysts question whether investment levels are keeping pace with actual demand.
If the company goes public, investors would gain a clearer view of its revenue streams and which products are driving growth through regulatory filings and earnings reports.
“The 2026 window either becomes the most consequential IPO cycle since the dot-com era or the most expensive lesson in narrative-versus-fundamentals that public markets have ever taught,” Rolfes also wrote.
Anthropic has emerged as a leading force in artificial intelligence, with its Claude assistant widely adopted among developers.
Its “Claude Code” tool, released last year, quickly became popular with software engineers, and the company has since expanded similar tools into sectors such as financial services.
Fintech firm Ramp reported in May that more businesses were using Anthropic than OpenAI for the first time.
The company’s latest funding rounds have also pushed its valuation beyond the $852 billion mark reported for OpenAI in March.
However, rapid expansion has brought scrutiny. Earlier this year, tensions surfaced between Anthropic and the U.S. government, with the Pentagon reportedly labeling the company a “supply chain risk” and effectively restricting its use in certain contexts.
Concerns were also raised around its advanced AI model Mythos, particularly regarding cybersecurity implications for both government and financial institutions.
On the consumer side, Claude has gained popularity as well, briefly topping the Apple App Store charts earlier this year and ranking as the second most popular app as of Monday, behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Still, competition remains intense. OpenAI and Google continue to refine their AI coding and assistant tools, while ChatGPT remains significantly more widely used than Claude.
According to research firm Emarketer, just 5.4% of U.S. internet users are expected to use Claude this year, compared with 36.6% for ChatGPT and 27.4% for Google’s Gemini.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also addressed IPO expectations, saying the company will go public “when we think it makes sense” during an interview on CNBC.
He dismissed the idea of a competitive race to list, adding, “I think there is a race to deliver the best technology, build the best business, but you know, going public is a financing event, and I don’t think that’s one that we’re focused on the timing of,” Altman said.
