Anthropic has taken another step toward a stock market listing by filing for an initial public offering (IPO) in a move that could spark a wave of US$1 trillion (A$1.4 trillion)-plus deals.
The privately-owned artificial intelligence (AI) model developer said it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an IPO of common stock.
“This gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review. The proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors,” the company, best known for its Claude AI assistant, said in a statement.
Anthropic, which was founded by former OpenAI researchers, including Chief Executive Dario Amodei, did not disclose the size or the terms of the offering, but in May became the world’s most valuable private AI company when it raised $65 billion at a valuation of $965 billion.
“The number of shares to be offered and the price have not yet been set,” it said.
The filing positions Anthropic as the first of the leading AI model developers to formally begin the process of entering public markets, beating rival OpenAI, which offers the widely used ChatGPT assistant.
The company’s valuation has surged amid strong investor demand for AI companies while they remain privately owned, but an IPO will mark an important test of whether they can attract support from public equity investors.
Aerospace company SpaceX, which also owns the Grok AI assistant, is among the other companies considering public listings, with a $1.75 trillion valuation targeted.
An IPO will require Anthropic to disclose financial and operational details that competitors can study and investors can closely scrutinise.
But confidential submissions allow companies to prepare for an IPO without disclosing sensitive financial details.
"Filing shortly after SpaceX allows Anthropic to capitalise on strong investor interest in AI and growth stocks while the window remains favourable," IPO research firm IPOX vice president Kat Liu was quoted as saying in a Reuters story.
"Anthropic's valuation ambitions appear far less aggressive in comparison (to SpaceX) than they might have looked in isolation.”
