Anthropic Beats OpenAI to IPO: Files at $1T Valuation
2 min readAnthropic has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, edging ahead of rival OpenAI in the race to become the first frontier AI lab on the public markets. The filing landed Monday with the lab carrying a private valuation near $1 trillion, a number that would put it inside the top tier of the S&P 500 on day one.
From Research Lab to Wall Street
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives and built its business around Claude, an assistant that has become a default choice inside Big Four firms, federal agencies, and large enterprise platforms. The company stayed private through several huge funding rounds, including a $65 billion raise in late May at a post-money valuation of $965 billion. That round vaulted Anthropic ahead of OpenAI in private valuation for the first time.
OpenAI had been widely expected to file first. Reuters reported in May that the ChatGPT maker was preparing its own confidential S-1 within weeks. Anthropic moving first flips that narrative and forces OpenAI to either accelerate or watch a competitor set the public-market template for the entire sector.
What the Filing Actually Means
A confidential filing under the JOBS Act lets Anthropic share its full financials with the SEC privately before a public roadshow. The company can revise the document, gauge investor appetite, and pick a window before anything becomes public. Pricing, share count, and target raise have not been disclosed.
The size of the deal will be the headline. At anything close to its current private mark, Anthropic would list at a valuation higher than Bank of America, Coca-Cola, or Netflix. Bankers will be watching how aggressively the company prices against $965 billion, and whether public investors are willing to underwrite that math given the cash burn behind frontier model training.
Why It Matters
This is the first real stress test of whether public markets will pay private-market prices for AI. Sovereign wealth funds and a handful of mega-cap tech buyers have been the only checks big enough to absorb the last few AI funding rounds. An Anthropic IPO opens the trade to mutual funds, pensions, and retail, which means the sector’s valuation finally faces a daily mark.
Watch for OpenAI’s response, the size of Anthropic’s initial float, and how the lockup is structured. The first AI mega-IPO will shape how every model lab approaches public capital for years.