Anthropic IPO coming? Claude AI maker may go public as early as 2026, says report

OpenAI rival Anthropic, the artificial intelligence (AI) startup behind the popular Claude AI chatbot, is reportedly planning an initial public offering (IPO) in 2026, the Financial Times reported on 2 December.

The fast-growing AI unicorn, backed by Amazon and Alphabet's Google, has hired law firm Wilson Sonsini to prepare for the listing, the report added.

Responding to Reuters queries, an Anthropic spokesperson said the company has not yet decided when, or even if, it will go public. Anthropic has previously engaged Wilson Sonsini for other corporate matters, though the law firm did not respond to Reuters' queries at the time of writing.

Why is Anthropic going for an IPO?

The IPO will help Anthropic raise fresh capital and gain leverage for bigger acquisitions through public stock, according to Reuters. The move comes as AI adoption gains pace globally, driven by higher enterprise tech spending and growing investor appetite for AI stocks, it added.

FT cited sources to report that Anthropic's IPO could come as soon as 2026, and it is in “early stage” and “informal” discussions with major investment banks about a potential listing. Thus, selection of the IPO underwriters may yet take some time, it added.

As per the report, the AI startup is negotiating a private funding round that could give the startup a valuation exceeding $300 billion.

Dario Amodei-led Anthropic is projecting to more than double and potentially nearly triple its annualised revenue run rate to around $26 billion next year. It has more than 300,000 business and enterprise customers, the Reuters report said.

OpenAI's IPO could push valuation to $1 trillion

Notably, OpenAI is also preparing for its IPO, which would be among the largest ever and take the ChatGPT-maker's valuation up to $1 trillion. The Microsoft-backed company is laying the groundwork to list and may file with securities regulators by H2 in 2026, as per Reuters.

In November, OpenAI's Chief Financial Officer, Sarah Friar, said listing is not in the startup's near-term plans.

Last month, Microsoft and Nvidia announced plans to invest up to $15 billion in Anthropic as the AI firm made a $30 billion commitment to use Microsoft's cloud services. Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI staff, Anthropic was recently valued at $183 billion.

(With inputs from Reuters)