Anthropic just set the stage for a blockbuster IPO - beating OpenAI to the punch

By William Gavin

SpaceX is gearing up for its listing, and OpenAI is expected to soon file confidentially for its own IPO

Anthropic has filed IPO paperwork.

Anthropic on Monday said it had confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering - and it achieved that step ahead of rival artificial-intelligence lab OpenAI.

The move "gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review," Anthropic said in a statement. The company added that the IPO's timing will depend on market conditions and other factors. Terms around the number of shares and the pricing have not been set.

Confidentially filing IPO paperwork is a practice that has become popular over the last several years. It allows companies to receive feedback from regulators before the public can view their financial information. It can help reduce lawsuits, according to a 2020 study.

Anthropic's move comes just a week after it announced a $65 billion fundraise that valued it at $965 billion. Just a few months earlier, Anthropic was valued at $380 billion. Its run-rate revenue also surpassed $47 billion in May, up from $14 billion in February, according to the company.

See more: SpaceX says it will reserve 5% of its IPO shares for staff, friends and family

The maker of Claude has now become the second of the expected megacap IPO candidates to file paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Rival AI lab OpenAI, which was most recently valued at $852 billion, is set to file its own paperwork with regulators in the coming weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

SpaceX is the closest to staging an IPO, having made public its prospectus filing in May. Elon Musk's company, which is currently valued at about $1.25 trillion, is expected to pursue a listing later this month. It's seeking to raise about $75 billion at a valuation of at least $1.8 trillion, according to Bloomberg.

At their current valuations, the companies are some of the most valuable in the U.S. Anthropic's market capitalization is greater than all but the top 12 public U.S. firms, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

OpenAI would be the 14th most valuable company by market capitalization, behind Walmart. SpaceX's current $1.25 trillion valuation would make it the 10th-largest U.S. firm by market cap, behind Meta Platforms (META) and above Micron (MU).

So far in 2026, IPOs have raised $28.8 billion in proceeds, a 144% increase compared with the same time in 2025, according to Renaissance Capital. This year will "almost certainly" set a record for IPO proceeds, the firm recently told MarketWatch, pointing to the prospect of IPOs from SpaceX and OpenAI.

Combined, the two companies alone are expected to raise more than $100 billion - potentially even $150 billion, according to Renaissance. The current record of $142.4 billion in IPO proceeds was set in 2021, according to the firm's data.

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-William Gavin

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06-01-26 1345ET