A market-transforming initial public offering may soon emerge, with the potential to rewrite the record books of capital markets. Based on information from individuals familiar with the matter, Anthropic is anticipated to match or even surpass the historic benchmark set by SpaceX in terms of its IPO scale.
Anthropic is expected to publicly file its IPO documents as early as the end of this month, with the company currently calculating the exact fundraising amount. Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao recently hosted investor communications meetings that deliberately avoided discussing valuation topics. Sources indicate that discussions remain ongoing, and details such as the IPO size could still shift.
SpaceX previously established the record for the largest IPO ever with an initial offering of $75 billion, which eventually reached $86.2 billion when including the overallotment option. Should Anthropic successfully surpass this milestone, 2026 would easily become the most prolific year for U.S. IPO fundraising in history. Currently, the cumulative fundraising from companies that have already gone public this year stands at $160.6 billion, still trailing the peak of $195.2 billion achieved in 2021.
Explosive Revenue Growth Coupled with Widening Net Losses
Anthropic's IPO ambitions are built upon impressive revenue acceleration. The company reported preliminary second-quarter revenues exceeding $11.5 billion, compared to just $787 million in the same period of 2025; as of the end of July, its annualized revenue run rate had already reached $65 billion. Meanwhile, the company's profitability picture shows a clear divergence.
Anthropic's adjusted operating profit turned positive in the second quarter, but its full-year 2025 net loss is projected at approximately $42 billion, roughly five times larger than the $8.3 billion loss from the previous year. This contradiction reflects a common challenge facing frontier AI companies—while revenue grows at a rapid pace, the substantial investments required to build more advanced AI systems rise in tandem. Just this May, Anthropic completed a $65 billion funding round at a valuation of $965 billion, surpassing competitor OpenAI's valuation of $852 billion from its March fundraising.
High Computing Costs and Expanding Capital Demands
Anthropic and its rivals are confronting the extreme cost pressures associated with training frontier large language models. Training these models demands massive computing power—in agreements with data center operators alone, Anthropic has entered into a computing procurement deal with SpaceX whose potential value over the next three years could reach tens of billions of dollars. Prior to the IPO, Anthropic also plans to finalize a revolving credit facility, with reports indicating the financing size will exceed the earlier target of approximately $10 billion. The IPO is being jointly underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan, with additional banks potentially joining later.
Governance Structure and Listing Timeline
On the corporate governance front, Anthropic is considering introducing a "super voting rights" share structure to grant its CEO Dario Amodei, who holds approximately 2% of shares, and his co-founders stronger control over the company. This design aims to ensure the founding team can maintain dominance in key decisions after the company goes public.
In terms of listing pace, Anthropic is likely to complete its public offering earlier than OpenAI—according to media reports, OpenAI has postponed its listing window to 2027. Both companies have already completed confidential filings. Anthropic's listing plans add another highlight to an already robust 2026 IPO market, which has seen two of the largest public offerings in history this year, including South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix's $26.5 billion American depositary receipt debut.
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