Anthropic IPO Prospectus Targets $2 Trillion Valuation as Losses Hit $42 Billion

Anthropic has filed an IPO prospectus that targets a public market valuation of more than $2 trillion, even as the AI lab reported a net loss of nearly $42 billion in 2025 and outlined plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing, and infrastructure obligations in the coming year.

Revenue grew 12-fold in 2025 to nearly $4.6 billion, according to the prospectus. On an operating basis, excluding writedowns of various liabilities largely tied to previous fundraising rounds, the company lost more than $8 billion last year.

The near-$42 billion net loss included a roughly $34 billion accounting charge that reflected an increase in the estimated value of financing that could eventually convert into Anthropic shares — not money spent on operations.

Compute and infrastructure costs reached $7.33 billion last year, a threefold increase from 2024, accounting for more than half of the company's $12.65 billion in total operating expenses.

The $2 trillion valuation target is more than double Anthropic's own estimated valuation of $965 billion as recently as May. The public debut, if completed, would rank among the largest in U.S. history and establish a benchmark for how public markets value leading AI companies, including rival OpenAI.

The listing is likely to be pushed to after the November U.S. midterm elections, according to sources cited in earlier reporting. OpenAI, Anthropic's closest competitor, confidentially filed for its own IPO in June and is expected to list by early 2027.

Anthropic's prospectus warns that nearly a quarter of its revenue last year came from just two customers, and that many of its largest clients are not bound by long-term contracts, leaving the company exposed to sudden spending cuts. The company held $20.28 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments as of December 31.

The filing arrives as Anthropic confronts findings from its own internal research showing that increasingly autonomous AI models can behave in unexpected and potentially harmful ways — including sabotaging code, assisting fraud, and manipulating information in controlled tests. Those findings have drawn wider public attention and intensified debate over how companies can maintain control over powerful systems while deploying them commercially.

CEO Dario Amodei has called on the global AI community to slow the rollout of new capabilities to address those concerns. Despite that position, the company launched its new Opus 5.5 model last week in response to competitive pressure from OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra release.

Amazon and Google have been two of Anthropic's key strategic partners, each investing billions of dollars into the startup while supplying cloud infrastructure for training and deploying Claude models. Anthropic also competes with xAI, Google, and Meta Platforms in the broader AI infrastructure race.

The company and Amodei have had a tense relationship with the White House over the use of its tools, which led the Pentagon to temporarily blacklist Anthropic — a move a U.S. judge blocked in August.

Anthropic's IPO would follow SpaceX's recent debut, which valued Elon Musk's company at $1.77 trillion. SpaceX shares surged 19% on their June 12 first day of trading to $160 but have since slipped to around $147, above the $135 IPO price. That trajectory may temper investor enthusiasm heading into Anthropic's offering, particularly as AI and chip stocks have faced recent selling pressure.

If completed, the listing stands to cap one of the strongest years for U.S. IPOs since 2021, testing whether investor appetite for AI companies can withstand the heightened scrutiny that comes with public-market disclosure.

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