Anthropic confidentially files for initial public offering on US stock market

Financial stakes of AI race rise as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are slated to go public this year

Anthropic has filed confidentially for an initial public offering on the US stock market, the company announced on Monday. The AI firm makes the Claude chatbot, popular with software engineers and other business clients, and has seen a meteoric rise this year.

The company did not disclose the valuation it will target on the stock market, nor did it make public other terms of the offering. The startup announced on Thursday that it had raised $65bn in funding to value the company at $965bn post-money. Anthropic was valued at $380bn in February.

Anthropic’s filing continues the company’s banner year, as well as pre-empts its rival OpenAI , which is expected to imminently file for its own IPO. Anthropic’s latest valuation also meant that the company leapfrogged OpenAI to become the world’s most valuable startup.

The filing underscores the rising financial stakes of AI race as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are all slated to go public this year. SpaceX has filed for a stock market float at a valuation of about $1.75tn as it seeks $75bn in investment.

Anthropic’s confidential filing will give regulators a period to look over the company’s financial disclosures before the AI firm’s investor prospectus becomes public. Filing confidentially has become common for major firms, with SpaceX approaching its IPO in the same manner.

Anthropic announced the filing in a short, two-paragraph blogpost that did not give an exact timeline for the company to go public and did not reveal the number of shares that it would offer.

“This gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review. The proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors,” Anthropic said.