Early this morning, Anthropic took an important step towards going public.
The company announced that it has secretly submitted its prospectus for an initial public offering (IPO) to regulators, taking a step ahead of OpenAI in the highly watched IPO race. In the U.S. market, these confidential filings are typically submitted six to nine months before a company goes public. Anthropic hasn't disclosed the size or timing of this funding round, but we know that with the popularity of its AI programming tool Claude Code and the foundational Claude model series, the company has experienced explosive growth over the past year, jumping to become OpenAI's strongest competitor, and the valuation of the new shares should be a significant number.
Just last week, Anthropic announced the completion of a new $65 billion Series H funding round while releasing its new model, Claude Opus 4.8, achieving a post-money valuation of $965 billion (exceeding OpenAI's latest round valuation of $730 billion); going back to February this year, Anthropic's valuation was only $380 billion after completing its Series G funding; and in March 2025, its valuation was just $61.5 billion.
In other words, this startup, founded in 2021 with only $10 million in annual revenue in 2022, has seen its valuation skyrocket about 15 times in the last 14 months, now achieving an annualized revenue rate of $47 billion.
However, it should be noted that the above numbers are still based on startup-stage valuations and projections; the IPO will force Anthropic to publicly disclose its operational information, proving whether its cutting-edge models genuinely have the ability to generate revenue.
The full official statement is as follows:
Today, Anthropic has secretly submitted its Form S-1 registration draft to the SEC, aiming for an IPO of its common stock. This gives us the option to go public once the SEC completes its review. The proposed IPO will depend on market conditions and other factors.
The number of shares to be issued and the pricing have not yet been determined. This announcement is made under the revised Rule 135 of the Securities Act of 1933. This announcement is not an offer to sell securities, nor does it constitute an invitation to purchase securities. Any offer to sell securities, invitations to purchase, or sales of securities can only be conducted in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act.
Some netizens have conducted in-depth research on Anthropic's IPO and uncovered 8 pieces of 'inside info':
Anthropic pays SpaceX about $1.25 billion per month for GPU access, and SpaceX is also preparing for its IPO, with both companies essentially 'blood transfusing' each other.
Due to using pirated books for training, Anthropic has a $1.5 billion copyright settlement agreement, which is the largest in U.S. history, and it has not yet been finalized.
Anthropic submitted a confidential version of the S-1, and there are currently no public audited financial data.
The widely cited $47 billion 'revenue' is actually an annualized yield, calculated by multiplying one month's income by 12. The actual income is much lower.
Google holds about 14% of the shares but has no voting rights; the real control of the company is in a trust that can decide most of the board members.
Anthropic is a Public Benefit Corp, meaning the board must consider 'benefits to humanity', not just shareholder interests.
Amazon has invested heavily but also does not have a board seat.
All of Anthropic's founders are former OpenAI employees.
In response to the news, OpenAI's Sam Altman immediately shared his thoughts, stating: 'The fiercest competition in the AI industry is not about who gets to Wall Street first. I think everyone is racing to provide the best technology and build the best companies, but you know, going public is a fundraising activity, and I don't think we're focused on the timing of the IPO.'
With the IPO application submitted, the progress of three AI-related companies preparing to go public this year has been updated; the other two are OpenAI and SpaceX (which has merged with xAI).
Previous reports indicated that OpenAI has been gearing up for an IPO, targeting to file its prospectus within the next few weeks; meanwhile, Musk's SpaceX is expected to go public this month, with a valuation set to reach $1.75 trillion, potentially breaking IPO records.
In today's AI landscape, Anthropic faces fierce competition, with OpenAI pivoting its strategy to focus on developing the AI coding tool Codex. Musk has also agreed to collaborate with another AI coding startup, Cursor, and may potentially acquire it. However, on the other hand, SpaceX is a partner of Anthropic, providing it with AI computing power.
Their IPOs will be among the largest in history, possibly triggering significant shifts in investment logic and employee wealth, and making Elon Musk - who holds about 50% of SpaceX shares - the world's first trillionaire. Since both Anthropic and OpenAI have committed to donating a large portion of their shares to charity, these IPOs may also bring substantial new funding to non-profit organizations.