Anthropic Files for US IPO as AI Valuation Nears $1 Trillion

The BBC reported Tuesday that AI company Anthropic has filed paperwork with US regulators for an initial public offering, targeting a stock market debut before the end of 2026. The Anthropic IPO filing arrives as the company’s private valuation sits just below $1 trillion, making it one of the most closely watched listings in recent memory.

Anthropic Enters the IPO Race Alongside SpaceX

Anthropic said the share price and total offering size have not yet been determined. The company’s most recent private funding round valued it at roughly $965 billion. That figure edges past rival OpenAI‘s latest private valuation of approximately $852 billion.

CEO Dario Amodei founded Anthropic five years ago after departing OpenAI, where he had worked under Sam Altman before the two split over strategic disagreements. The firms now compete directly, building similar AI systems and chasing the same enterprise and consumer customers.

The filing comes alongside SpaceX’s own widely anticipated market debut, which analysts expect to break listing records on its own. The two offerings together represent, according to research firm Pitchbook analyst Harrison Rolfes, the largest concentration of pre-IPO capital ever brought to public markets simultaneously.

A Defining Moment for AI Valuations

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Analysts are divided over the timing and sequencing of the filings. Senior equity analyst Matt Britzman at Hargreaves Lansdown described Anthropic’s move as a clear signal that the AI industry is entering a more capital-intensive phase. Senior fund manager Tineke Frikkee at W1M said she would focus on profitability figures buried inside the eventual prospectus document.

Troy Hooper of Mergermarket argued that listing first carries a distinct advantage. Whoever goes earliest gets to define how public markets price generative AI, he said, setting the benchmark every subsequent company must beat.

Rolfes put the stakes bluntly. The 2026 window, he said, either becomes the most significant IPO cycle since the dot-com era or the most expensive lesson in narrative-versus-fundamentals that markets have ever delivered.

Background: OpenAI Watching From the Wings

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OpenAI is also reportedly weighing a public listing this year. Altman told CNBC that his company intends to go public but faces no pressing timeline. Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet has separately announced plans to deploy $80 billion toward AI infrastructure, adding further fuel to a capital cycle that analysts say has few historical precedents.

Anthropic has also navigated a public dispute with the US Department of Defense over contract language it feared could allow its Claude models to be deployed in autonomous weapons systems or mass domestic surveillance programs.

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