SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2026, 00:58 PDT
Anthropic PBC has quietly filed draft IPO documents in the U.S., moving closer to going public. The Claude developer said the deal will involve common stock, but didn’t give a price or number of shares.
The filing is a key step for the market as the AI funding surge hits public investors. Soon, investors could see the numbers behind a private valuation pumped up by heavy spending on AI models, compute power and coding tools.
Anthropic said on May 28 it has pulled in $65 billion from a Series H round, putting its post-money valuation at $965 billion. The company also said run-rate revenue topped $47 billion earlier in May, annualizing its latest sales pace. CFO Krishna Rao said the new funding will help Anthropic meet what he called “historic demand.” Anthropic
A Form S-1 is the key U.S. registration form needed for companies going public. Using a confidential draft filing, the company lets the Securities and Exchange Commission review its IPO documents before they are public. The SEC says companies taking this route usually have to put out their registration statement and draft filings at least 15 days before starting a roadshow, or 15 days before their requested effective date if there is no roadshow.
Anthropic is now ahead of OpenAI in the race to set how public markets will value top AI model firms. Reuters said OpenAI could confidentially file in coming weeks, and SpaceX also wants a big listing. All three may end up competing for the same growth capital, even though their businesses are different. Kat Liu, vice president at IPOX, said Anthropic was acting while the “window remains favorable.” PitchBook analyst Harrison Rolfes said the company took a “narrative advantage.” Reuters
Analysts are already questioning what hasn’t been revealed in the private rounds. Matt Kennedy at Renaissance Capital cited “insatiable demand” for top AI engineers. Rolfes said gross margin—what’s left after costs like chips and cloud—“determines everything.” Nate Elliott from Emarketer asked if investors will look at AI as an “enterprise story.” Brian Mulberry at Zacks called valuation “difficult” with important details still missing. Reuters
Competition is tight, with OpenAI out ahead in the consumer market thanks to ChatGPT. Anthropic has focused more on business, pushing Claude and Claude Code there. Patrick Corrigan, a law professor at Notre Dame who looks at IPOs, told AP Anthropic could grab a “first movers’ advantage.” IDC analyst Tim Law told AP more public updates would be good for the AI sector. AP News
Markets closed higher Monday. The Nasdaq added 0.42% and the S&P 500 was up 0.26%, with both setting new closing highs. Tech shares jumped 2.5% as investors kept buying AI-related stocks.
But it’s not a done deal yet. Anthropic hasn’t settled on terms, and filing confidentially with the SEC gets it closer to an IPO but doesn’t guarantee a stock sale. The company could push back the offering or price it below the latest private round if the tech rally slows, if SEC review drags out, or if public buyers aren’t comfortable with its spending on compute, cash use, or possible dilution.
The next big signal is a public S-1. For now, Wall Street just has a short company statement, a big funding round, a couple of analyst benchmarks and one question—what price does a fast-growing AI lab get once its numbers have to trade daily?
