Anthropic to beat SpaceX? Investors bet on $2 trillion valuation in record IPO

After SpaceX’s historic market debut, investors are now eyeing the upcoming mega initial public offering of AI startup Anthropic, which is expected to smash the record for the world’s largest-ever IPO with a valuation of $2 trillion or more.

Anthropic, which is behind popular AI assistant Claude, confidentially filed for a US initial public offering last month. It did not disclose the size or the terms of the offering. This comes after it raised $65 billion at a post-money valuation of $965 billion in late May, putting it ahead of rival OpenAI.

While investors await the details of the IPO, around six of the company’s backers told the Financial Times that Anthropic’s rapidly rising revenue would enable it to more than double its current valuation in a planned autumn float. The report quoted the unnamed backers as saying that booming demand for the lab's advanced AI models and tools justifies their lofty expectations.


Investors forecast Anthropic's annualised revenue to be between $100 billion and $120 billion by the end of 2026. If Anthropic is growing at 800% a year, even at the incredibly low end, the shares of the company would trade at 30 times its revenue, and that would make the AI startup a $3 trillion company, the report quoted a source as saying.

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Anthropic, however, does not have a publicly listed US peer that would help investors have a benchmark to assess its valuation. But companies which are seen as AI beneficiaries, such as data intelligence group Palantir and cloud company Nebius, have traded this year at around 55 times revenue, FT reported.

These bullish expectations come despite rising challenges, including rising competition from Chinese rivals, growing stress on AI regulation and a simmering feud with the Donald Trump-led US government. Those concerns, especially the US Commerce Department’s temporary ban on Anthropic’s best models, contributed to overall revenue growth slowing in June, FT cited two investors with knowledge of the matter as saying. However, they added that the company had rebounded and continued to grow at an extraordinary rate even by Silicon Valley standards.

Anthropic IPO and AI boom

The Anthropic IPO filing reflects growing confidence among investors seeking exposure to the artificial intelligence boom. Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, Anthropic has emerged as one of the strongest challengers in the AI industry. The company gained recognition through its Claude family of AI chatbots, which compete directly with ChatGPT and other advanced AI systems.

After SpaceX’s IPO raised $75 billion, making it the biggest-ever IPO by proceeds, the company began trading at $150 per share in June, marking an 11% premium to its IPO price of $135. Its market capitalisation topped $2 trillion on its debut day.

After listing, the shares of the company surged more than 50% over three sessions. The shares of the Elon Musk-led company have jumped 36% over the past five sessions, but remain 3% below their listing price.

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(With inputs from agencies)

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