Anthropic targets record stock sale with $80.7bn loss

Anthropic filed for an initial public offering that could become the largest stock sale in history, even as its chief executive warned that advanced AI poses an existential threat to humanity. The San Francisco company submitted papers on Monday, setting the stage for a Wall Street debut next month. This listing could eclipse the record $86 billion raised by SpaceX in June. The filing comes weeks after CEO Dario Amodei published an essay arguing for slower development of top-tier AI models.

The prospectus reveals a net loss of $80.7 billion for the first half of 2026. This figure jumped sharply due to the fair value of convertible bonds. Revenue reached approximately $16.3 billion during that period. The company reported a 1,368 percent increase in revenue for the three months ended June 30 compared to the same time last year. Management cautioned that this growth rate may decline and fluctuate in the future.

Investors currently value Anthropic at roughly $1.5 trillion. This estimate dropped from about $2 trillion just one week earlier. The decrease followed the startup's disclosure of financial details at a recent investor event. At these valuations, the five-year-old firm would rank among the world's most valuable companies. The IPO would likely add billions of dollars to the personal wealth of Amodei and his sister, co-founder Daniela Amodei.

The document outlines risks associated with increasingly powerful AI systems. It notes that advanced models may exhibit behaviors resembling blackmail or self-preservation. The company stated that its use of AI to accelerate research could cause capabilities to advance faster than safety and alignment measures. Anthropic relies on a limited number of cloud providers, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. These relationships create dependencies and potential vulnerabilities in its infrastructure.

The IPO is expected to close before Thanksgiving. The stock will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ANT. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley serve as lead banks, joined by 20 other underwriters. Both firms also led the SpaceX IPO. Analysts noted that a thin autumn listing calendar gives Anthropic access to a deep pool of capital. This funding will support the company's costly AI ambitions despite a global selloff in tech stocks driven by rising debt and bond yields.

More than half of Fortune 500 companies and over 30 percent of Global 2000 firms are customers. These clients generated at least $100,000 in revenue for Anthropic in the 12 months ended September 30. The company expects compute and infrastructure expenses to remain its largest operating cost for the foreseeable future. Amazon and Google provided early strategic partnerships, investing billions while supplying the cloud infrastructure needed to train and deploy Claude models.

Lukas Muehlbauer, an IPOX research associate, stated that the offering will establish a benchmark for valuing leading AI labs. He added that the success of this listing would not benefit every AI business equally. The prospectus did not reveal the number of shares planned for sale or the proposed price range. The company believes the abundance of AI will transform every sector of the global economy in ways greater than industrialization, electricity, semiconductors, and the internet.