Anthropic has confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, formally kicking off its initial public offering process. The Claude maker submitted the S-1 filing on June 1, 2026 — making it the first of the major AI labs to begin the public market journey and narrowly beating rival OpenAI to the starting line.
The Numbers Behind the Filing
Anthropic’s financials, though still confidential under SEC review, have been outlined to investors in recent weeks. The company’s annualised revenue run rate has grown from $4 billion in July 2025, to $9 billion by January 2026, to a projected $47+ billion today — an approximate 12x increase in under 12 months.
The company expects to report $10.9 billion in revenue for Q2 2026 alone — more than doubling Q1’s $4.8 billion, and exceeding its entire 2025 annual revenue in a single quarter. That growth trajectory is the primary argument for its eye-catching $965 billion valuation, which it reached after closing a $65 billion Series H round.
Even more striking: Anthropic expects its first profitable quarter ever in Q2, projecting $559 million in operating income — a roughly 5% margin. Thin for a near-trillion-dollar valuation, but it answers a critical question Wall Street has been asking about AI labs: can these businesses actually make money?
Why Now — And Why Before OpenAI?
Timing matters enormously here. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have been telegraphing IPO plans for months. SpaceX’s highly anticipated trillion-dollar IPO is expected to dominate investor attention later in 2026, and analysts widely believe whichever AI company goes public first will command a better valuation — drawing in capital before attention shifts to the space giant.
By filing confidentially now, Anthropic locks in a window before OpenAI, which is still targeting Q4 2026. The confidential process also gives it room to refine its prospectus without exposing sensitive business data to competitors while the SEC reviews the document.
What the $965 Billion Valuation Means
If Anthropic debuts at or above its current $965 billion valuation, it would instantly rank as one of the most valuable companies in the world — sitting above Meta, Berkshire Hathaway, and Taiwan Semiconductor. It would also mark one of the two or three largest IPOs in history, behind only Saudi Aramco.
Skeptics will note that a 5% operating margin is very slim for such a valuation. But investors appear willing to price in the growth trajectory — $50 billion+ run rate by July 2026, with no obvious ceiling in enterprise AI demand.
Claude Is the Business
Anthropic’s entire business rests on Claude — its family of AI models including Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Claude Opus 4, and the recently launched Claude Opus 4.8. Enterprise customers across finance, legal, healthcare, and software development are driving the revenue surge. Claude Opus 4.8 currently leads on coding benchmarks over GPT-5.5 and offers significantly lower inference costs — a combination proving attractive to high-volume enterprise buyers.
The company’s API business is bolstered by Amazon’s $8 billion stake and Google’s multi-billion investment — both cloud giants have deeply integrated Claude into their platforms, providing a steady revenue floor that pure-play AI startups don’t have.
What Happens Next
Confidential filings typically move to a public prospectus within 3–6 months, meaning an Anthropic IPO roadshow could begin as early as Q3 2026. The company has not yet disclosed share count, price range, or the specific stock exchange it plans to list on.
OpenAI, still targeting Q4, now faces the choice of accelerating its own timeline or accepting second-mover disadvantage in the most closely watched IPO market since the dot-com era. The Anthropic $65 billion funding round that preceded this filing was already a signal — the IPO is the logical next step.
The Bigger Picture
Anthropic’s filing is a watershed moment for the AI industry. For years, these companies operated as private juggernauts burning investor capital. The turn to profitability — even at thin margins — and the move toward public markets signals a maturation of the sector. AI is no longer a research bet; it’s an infrastructure business.
For everyday users, little changes immediately. Claude remains available via all existing subscription tiers, and Anthropic has given no indication of pricing changes tied to the IPO. But the pressure of quarterly earnings and public shareholders will inevitably shape the product roadmap in ways that private ownership never did.
This is the start of the AI industry’s public era — and Anthropic just rang the opening bell.
