Anthropic files IPO with SEC, raising 2026 listing view

2026-06-01

Possible move-up in IPO timing

Anthropic, the U.S. artificial intelligence startup, said on the 1st that it had filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It submitted a draft of its S-1, the equivalent of a Japanese prospectus, without making the contents public, further strengthening market expectations for a listing by the end of 2026. It is expected to become a major AI-sector IPO after U.S. SpaceX in June.

The company did not disclose financial information, the number of shares to be offered or sold, the offer price, or the exchange on which it plans to list. It said those details would be made public after review, and described the timing of the listing as depending on 'market conditions and other factors'. While there had been expectations that a listing could come as early as October to December, the filing has now raised the possibility of an earlier move.

Eyeing more than $1 trillion

The company is widely seen as aiming for a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, or about 160 trillion yen, at the time of listing. In June, a report said Elon Musk-led SpaceX was planning a listing on the U.S. Nasdaq market at a valuation of $1.8 trillion. OpenAI has also been reported to be preparing to file for an IPO, making the race to go public among the three giant private companies increasingly clear.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and others. Its conversational AI Claude came after OpenAI's ChatGPT, but it has improved its performance in programming and has strengthened its presence as a leading AI company. In April, it unveiled a new AI model, Claude Mythos, which has a strong ability to find system vulnerabilities, drawing interest from governments and financial institutions around the world.

Funding needs support listing

Anthropic raised $65 billion in a capital increase on May 28, lifting its corporate value to $965 billion. That was 2.5 times higher than about three months earlier and surpassed OpenAI's $852 billion valuation for the first time. Its business is also expanding rapidly. Revenue for the April-June quarter was $10.9 billion, about 2.3 times the previous quarter, and it expects adjusted operating profit excluding stock-based compensation and other expenses to turn positive for the first time.

The development and operation of AI require enormous amounts of capital, and a listing would make it easier to raise funds flexibly through shares and corporate bonds. Anthropic and OpenAI have raised money from venture capital firms and major tech companies while remaining private, but that room is narrowing as they scale up. David Erickson, an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, said that going public sooner would make a company less vulnerable to competitors and help it secure a market valuation as a representative AI firm.

Harrison Rolfe of U.S. research firm PitchBook said this year's IPO market will be 'the most important cycle since the IT boom around 2000'. He said whether Anthropic's profit margin matches investor expectations will determine the direction of AI-related stocks.

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