Artificial intelligence company Anthropic is preparing for a public market debut that could become the largest initial public offering in history. The San Francisco firm is expected to surpass the record established in June by Elon Musk's space exploration group SpaceX, which raised 85.7 billion dollars at a valuation of 1.77 trillion dollars.
Anthropic expects to match or exceed the SpaceX figure, according to Bloomberg. The New York Times reported on Friday that banks representing Anthropic have told investors the company could raise more than 100 billion dollars and achieve a valuation of approximately 2 trillion dollars.
A 2 trillion dollar market capitalization would double the 965 billion dollar valuation Anthropic reached during its last funding round in May. Reaching this level would place the five year old company alongside technology giants such as Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft.
Financial disclosures expected
Following a confidential filing with financial regulators in June, Anthropic is expected to publish its listing prospectus and reveal its accounts for the first time in the coming weeks. The New York Times reported that the public offering is being discussed for the autumn.
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of former employees from rival firm OpenAI. The founding team was led by siblings Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei. The company has built its business by focusing on software tools designed specifically for developers, including its Claude Code programming assistant.
This strategy has helped Anthropic dominate the most profitable segment of the artificial intelligence market. The firm saw its sales more than double to 11.6 billion dollars in the second quarter of the year. This financial performance allowed Anthropic to surpass the 6.7 billion dollars in sales recorded by OpenAI over the same period.
Infrastructure costs drive losses
Despite surging revenue growth, Anthropic continues to operate at a significant deficit. Net losses for the company reached nearly 42 billion dollars in 2025, representing a fivefold increase from the previous year.
The heavy losses are the result of the massive investments required to operate at the forefront of the industry. The company has spent heavily to recruit specialist talent and construct enormous data centers equipped with millions of artificial intelligence chips.
The firm is also facing increasing competition in a market where it maintains some of the highest prices. Cheaper open access models from Chinese developers are putting pressure on the business. The broader price war is escalating, with OpenAI announcing on Friday that it would reduce the cost of its most powerful model by over 20 percent for a three month period.
Government contract dispute
Prospective shareholders will also have to weigh the risk of Anthropic's strained relationship with the Trump administration. The United States government cancelled all of its contracts with the startup in March.
The cancellation occurred after Anthropic refused to allow the Pentagon to use its artificial intelligence models for mass surveillance operations or to power autonomous lethal weapons. The dispute over the terminated contracts is currently the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.
