Business
AI giant Anthropic files for an IPO that could break records
Anthropic is taking a big step toward a blockbuster stock listing that would rank among the biggest IPOs ever.
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The <a s rocketry and AI company SpaceX, which was valued at around $1.8 trillion when it listed in June. Anthropic's listing prospectus did not say how many shares the company will offer or at what price range.
The filing of a public version of a registration statement called a Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission is a major milestone in Anthropic’s meteoric rise. It was launched just five years ago by a breakaway group of OpenAI researchers, led by Dario Amodei, who were concerned that that company, run by Sam Altman, was not on a path to develop AI safely.
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Anthropic has since become a juggernaut, and OpenAI’s biggest competitor, with some of the most widely used AI models on the market. But the company has faced controversy, including a conflict with the Pentagon over how its models can be used and questions about Amodei’s dire warnings on AI risks.
Still, the prospectus highlighted Anthropic’s bullishness about the <a We believe this abundance of AI will rapidly transform every sector of the global economy in ways greater than the impact of industrialization, electricity, semiconductors, and the internet," it said.
In its prospectus, Anthropic highlighted breakneck growth — in revenue, income and losses. The company said its revenue in the first half of the year rose 1,300% at $16.3 billion, while its adjusted operating income — a measure of potential profitability — hit $1.6 billion during the period, vs. a loss of $1.8 billion the year before.
Anthropic has yet to turn an annual profit, and said it booked a loss of nearly $81 billion in the January to June period, up from $13 billion during the same six months last year.
In a statement emailed to NPR, Raj Joshi, senior vice president in the corporate finance group of Moody’s, the ratings agency, called Anthropic’s swing in adjusted operating income from negative to positive territory “a strong positive for the AI ecosystem.”
U.S. stock indexes were up on Monday after Anthropic’s early-morning announcement.
AI stocks have been hit by volatility
The filing comes at a volatile time in the stock market for AI-related companies, as investors waver between exuberance about the positive effects AI could have on the economy and concern about safety and the tsunami of investment in the technology.
