The AI race is turning into an IPO race, and Anthropic has taken the lead on both counts. On Monday, the company behind Claude announced that it had filed a confidential prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Known as an S-1 form, companies are legally required to submit the document for federal review before entering the stock market with an initial public offering, or IPO. “The proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors,” Anthropic wrote in its announcement. If recent numbers are any indication, though, Anthropic is on track for a historically massive IPO. The company announced last week that it had raised $65 billion in its latest funding round, landing its post-money valuation at $965 billion. That means it’s officially surpassed the valuation of its biggest competitor, OpenAI, the company that sparked the AI boom with the release of ChatGPT in late 2022 and is currently valued at around $730 billion.
Anthropic was founded by former OpenAI employees who left the company following disagreements over how the technology should be developed. Since then, a steady trickle of ex-OpenAI researchers have left the company for Anthropic, which has positioned itself as the most responsible leader in an industry that has played fast and loose with safety precautions. Last month, a company executive joined Pope Leo XIV for the latter’s delivery of his “Magnifica Humanitas” encyclical, further bolstering its humanitarian reputation.
