Claude maker Anthropic files for IPO, setting up public-market test of AI boom

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot, said Monday it has confidentially filed for an initial public offering.

The move catapults Anthropic ahead of its rival OpenAI, which Wall Street analysts expect could announce its own IPO sometime this year. The filing also comes less than two weeks after SpaceX, which owns Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, filed for its own IPO. 

“We believe this represents an opening of the floodgates for the IPO market, which has been relatively dormant for a few years, with these three major conglomerates set to go public later this year, but this has turned into a race to reach public markets over the coming months,” Wedbush Securities analysts said in a research note Monday.

The trio of IPOs will test investors’ appetite for artificial intelligence, a fast-growing sector that has helped fuel the stock market’s recent rally. Wall Street is betting the technology will boost productivity, increase corporate profits and transform the U.S. economy. Whether AI companies can deliver on those expectations, however, remains an open question.

A confidential filing allows the AI company to gather feedback from regulators before it submits a public filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“This gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review,” the company said in a statement. “The proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors.”

The company said it hasn’t decided on the number or price of shares to be offered.

AI showdown

While demand for AI products is growing rapidly, some investors question whether these companies’ massive investments in building data centers will translate into profits. Some experts are also questioning whether AI will turn out to be as transformative for businesses as supporters of the technology insist. 

Last week, Anthropic announced that it raised $65 billion in a recent funding round, bringing its valuation to $965 billion. The San-Francisco-based company also said it’s now booking annualized revenue of $47 billion from selling its Claude subscriptions to businesses and individuals who use it to write code and perform work and personal tasks.

Dario Amodei, the company’s current CEO, formed Anthropic alongside several other ex-OpenAI employees in 2021. 

He captured the nation’s attention a few months ago after refusing to allow the Defense Department to use Anthropic’s AI technology to power fully autonomous weapons and perform mass surveillance of Americans. 

President Trump later ordered government agencies to stop working with the AI company, canceling more than $200 million in federal contracts. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also labeled Anthropic “a supply chain risk to national security.”