Anthropic's $2 Trillion IPO Bid Puts AI Listing Frenzy in Focus

Anthropic's long-anticipated US initial public offering is shaping up as one of the largest stock market debuts ever attempted, and a key gauge of how far public investors are willing to back the artificial intelligence boom.

The Claude developer could be valued at roughly $2 trillion in the listing, a scale that would make it one of the most consequential market events in years and could ripple through benchmark indexes, investor flows and the wider narrative around US equities.

Anthropic disclosed in June that it had confidentially filed for a US IPO. The company is seeking to raise as much as $100 billion, according to its filings and prior reporting. Its prospectus shows a net loss of $42 billion in 2025, alongside plans to commit $518 billion to cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations in the coming years.

The timing remains fluid. The offering could slip past the November US midterm elections, though those elections are not expected to have a major impact on the deal. Marketing had earlier been expected to begin in mid-October at the earliest, after previous delays. In late May, Anthropic raised $65 billion at a post-money valuation of $965 billion, placing it ahead of rival OpenAI.

OpenAI, the operator of ChatGPT, also revealed in June that it had confidentially filed for a US listing. Chief executive Sam Altman said this month that the company will not go public in 2026, pointing to safety concerns around artificial intelligence that make even a 10% risk of human extinction by the end of the decade unacceptable. OpenAI has said it has not settled on timing, noting that some goals may be easier to pursue as a private company while keeping the option to list sooner. It had been laying groundwork for an offering that could value it at up to $1 trillion. In May, the company fended off an existential court challenge from Elon Musk, easing its path to a listing.

SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket and satellite maker, already set the benchmark. Its June debut on the Nasdaq shattered records and eclipsed Saudi Aramco's 2019 listing to become the largest IPO ever, with proceeds of $75 billion — more than double Aramco's haul. SpaceX shares closed their first day at $160.95, valuing the company at $2.1 trillion. The stock has since cooled, ending at $148.68 on September 25, still above its $135 offer price.