Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) that could raise as much as $100 billion, potentially setting a new global record even as the company faces mounting questions about profitability and the safety of its technology.
The San Francisco-based developer of the Claude chatbot submitted its registration documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday (Oct. 26), with a potential Nasdaq debut in November.
Record-breaking IPO amid mounting financial pressures
According to the Associated Press, Anthropic’s anticipated offering could surpass the $86 billion raised by SpaceX in June, currently the largest IPO on record. The company also stands to become publicly traded before its principal rival, OpenAI.
Anthropic’s official SEC filing revealed that revenue reached $16.3 billion during the first six months of 2026, approximately 14 times the amount reported during the same period last year.
However, the company recorded a net loss of $80.7 billion, including a $72.4 billion accounting adjustment related to financing agreements. Its operating loss was considerably smaller, at $693 million.
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Anthropic warned in the filing that it “may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future,” underscoring the enormous costs associated with developing advanced AI systems.
The company’s potential valuation has also fluctuated significantly. According to Reuters, some existing and prospective investors currently value Anthropic at approximately $1.5 trillion, down from estimates approaching $2 trillion a week earlier.
“There is still enormous excitement about AI’s potential to transform businesses, turbocharge productivity and reshape entire industries, but investors are becoming more discerning,” said Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club.
Anthropic has not finalized its offering price or the number of shares it intends to sell.
AI safety concerns and government disputes
Beyond its financial challenges, Anthropic’s IPO filing contains extensive warnings about the potential dangers of advanced artificial intelligence.
According to the Associated Press, 93 pages of the company’s 335-page prospectus are devoted to risk factors, including the possibility of AI being used to develop chemical or biological weapons, conduct cyberattacks, or enable authoritarian governments to expand surveillance and repression.
The company also acknowledged that increasingly autonomous AI systems could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” if appropriate safeguards fail.
In a September essay, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged the industry to reconsider the speed of AI development.
“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,” Amodei wrote.
He warned that within six to 12 months, increasingly capable AI agents could potentially coordinate cyberattacks on a scale sufficient to compromise large portions of the internet.
Anthropic’s public offering also comes amid an ongoing legal confrontation with the Trump administration over restrictions on military applications of its technology.
The company sued the Pentagon in March after the federal government designated it a supply chain risk, following disagreements over unrestricted military use of its AI systems. Separate legal challenges have produced conflicting court decisions, with appeals pending.
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