On June 1, 2026, Anthropic filed a confidential S-1 draft with the SEC, kicking off one of the largest IPOs in history. The timing is set: October 2026, on the Nasdaq. Its last valuation stood at $965B.
I have used Claude since its first release in March 2023 and have followed Anthropic closely ever since. What is happening here is remarkable even by AI standards: a company that started in 2021 with seven people is, five years later, running toward an annualized revenue of around $47B.
In this article you get everything about the Anthropic IPO: the planned date, the valuation, the funding history, how you can invest before the listing and which risks you should know about.
- Anthropic filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC on June 1, 2026. The Nasdaq IPO is planned for October 2026
- Its last valuation was $965B (Series H, May 2026). At the IPO it is likely to cross the $1 trillion mark
- There is no tradable stock yet. Through regular brokers you can only get in after the IPO, before that only via secondary markets
- Annualized revenue rose from $1B (Dec. 2024) to around $47B (May 2026). That puts Anthropic ahead of OpenAI on revenue
1. The Anthropic IPO at a glance
The key facts of the planned listing:
Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| S-1 filed | June 1, 2026 (confidential) |
| Planned IPO | October 2026 (Nasdaq) |
| Underwriters | Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan |
| Expected proceeds | over $60B |
| Last valuation | $965B (Series H) |
| Expected IPO valuation | over $1T |
| Ticker | TBD |
| Stock tradable | only after the IPO |
Unlike SpaceX, nothing here is locked in yet. The S-1 is filed confidentially, and the public prospectus with offer price and ticker is still outstanding. What is clear: with a last valuation of $965B and expected proceeds of over $60B, this would be one of the largest tech IPOs ever.
2. The road to the IPO
From its founding in 2021 to the planned IPO in 2026, Anthropic moved fast. The company was founded by Dario and Daniela Amodei together with five more former OpenAI researchers, out of concern for AI safety. The timeline below shows the key stages up to the IPO:
The real accelerator was the revenue and valuation growth of the past 14 months. Only that momentum made the IPO realistic in the first place. For more background on models, benchmarks and usage, see my Claude statistics.
3. Valuation: $965B and how it got there
Anthropic's valuation has risen more than fifteenfold in just over a year. From $61.5B in the Series E (March 2025) it went to $183B (Series F, September 2025), $380B (Series G, February 2026) and $965B in the Series H (May 2026). The chart below shows the jump across the latest rounds:
For context: at an annualized revenue of around $47B, a valuation of $965B is about 20 times revenue. That is an aggressive valuation that prices in a lot of future growth. It already makes Anthropic worth more than Boeing or Netflix, before the IPO. In just over a year, the valuation has grown roughly 15-fold.
4. Funding & investors
Anthropic's funding rounds are among the largest in tech history. In total the company has raised over $119B. The earlier rounds were still modest: $124M in the Series A (May 2021), $580M in the Series B, $450M in the Series C and $750M in the Series D. Then came the strategics and the mega-rounds:
Amazon invested a total of $4B across two steps in 2023, with Google contributing $2B. That was followed by $3.5B in the Series E, $13B in the Series F, $30B in the Series G and finally $65B in the Series H. Those $65B are the largest private funding round of all time, bigger than OpenAI's previous record.
Among the investors, Amazon and Google stand out. They are not just backers but strategic partners. In return, Claude runs on AWS Bedrock and Google Cloud Vertex AI:
Amazon has invested the most at around $8B and supplies Trainium chips for training in return. Google follows with around $3B and provides TPUs. Behind them come Coatue at $2.5B, the sovereign fund GIC at $2B, plus Lightspeed, Fidelity and ICONIQ at $1.5B each. Anthropic is the only major AI company running this multi-cloud strategy.
5. Revenue: from startup to a $47B run rate
Revenue is the real reason for the speed of the IPO. The annualized revenue (the "run rate", the current monthly revenue extrapolated to a full year) rose from $1B in December 2024 to around $47B in May 2026:
The path shows how steep the climb was. From $1B the run rate climbed through $14B in February 2026 and $30B in April to around $47B in May. Between March and May 2026 alone, the figure more than doubled from around $19B to around $47B, driven by Claude Code and enterprise adoption. That puts Anthropic ahead of OpenAI (around $24B) on annualized revenue. No technology company has ever grown to this scale so quickly.
6. Where Anthropic's revenue comes from
At its core, Anthropic is an API business. Around 72% of revenue comes from companies making pay-per-token calls, and only about 13% from Claude.ai subscriptions. The remaining roughly 15% covers everything else, including Claude Code. This is an estimate by the research firm Sacra, since Anthropic does not disclose the exact split:
This mix explains why Anthropic depends so heavily on business customers. The developers who wire Claude into their own products via the API carry the lion's share. The classic consumer subscription through Claude.ai, by contrast, is a comparatively small block.
7. Enterprise traction: from 12 to over 1,000
The number of customers spending over $1M a year doubled from around 500 to over 1,000 between February and April 2026 alone. In early 2024 there were only about 12. The bars show how fast the enterprise business ramped:
In total, Anthropic has over 300,000 business customers, and the enterprise segment makes up around 80% of revenue. This concentration on a few but very large customers is a strength and a risk at the same time. More on that in the risks section.
8. The compute deals: over $140B
Behind the revenue boom sits a massive hardware lever. The commitment to AWS runs to over $100B over ten years (up to 5 GW of compute, over 1M Trainium2 chips), plus a Google Cloud deal of up to $40B:
One thing to keep in mind: these compute commitments are separate from the equity investments. Amazon has put around $8B and Google around $3B into Anthropic as a stake. The billions for compute come on top of that. Together, the two compute deals add up to over $140B that Anthropic will pour into training and running its models over the coming years.
9. When will Anthropic go public?
The timeline of an IPO always follows a similar path, and Anthropic is right in the middle of it. The company took the first step on June 1, 2026: the confidential S-1 filing with the SEC. "Confidential" means the financial details are not public at first. OpenAI, by the way, followed a week later on June 8, 2026.
Here is how it is likely to proceed:
- Summer 2026: The public S-1 appears, including financials, risk factors and a first price range.
- August to September 2026: The roadshow begins, with management courting institutional investors for orders.
- October 2026: The actual Nasdaq listing, with the offer price and the first trading day.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were named as lead underwriters, the usual lineup of big Wall Street banks. Until the public prospectus is out, the offer price and ticker remain open.
10. Buying Anthropic stock: options before the IPO
The most important answer first: there is no tradable Anthropic stock yet. So you cannot currently buy it through your regular broker. That only changes with the IPO in October 2026. Still, there are a few ways to get in beforehand (or right after):
Route | Access | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Wait for the IPO | from Oct. 2026 via any US broker | simplest route |
| Secondary markets (Forge, EquityZen) | accredited investors only | high minimums |
| Funds with a stake | indirectly via some tech/VC funds | small, indirect share |
For the vast majority of retail investors, the simplest and cleanest route is to just wait for the IPO and buy the stock afterward through a broker that offers US equities. Secondary markets are reserved for accredited investors with high minimums, and a fund only gives you a small, indirect share.
And on the common question, "does Anthropic have a stock?": not yet. Accordingly, there is no WKN and no ISIN either. Both identifiers only come into existence with the listing. If you are looking for them, check directly in your broker account from October 2026 via the ticker assigned then.
11. SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI: the three big IPOs compared
Anthropic is not the only mega-IPO this year. SpaceX is already listed, and OpenAI is also heading for the public markets. Here is how Anthropic ranks by valuation:
gradually.aiCompany | Valuation | Revenue/ARR | IPO status | Ticker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpaceX | $1.75T | $18.7B (2025) | Listed 06/12/2026 | SPCX |
| Anthropic | $965B | ~$47B ARR | S-1 June 1, target Oct 2026 | TBD |
| OpenAI | $852B | ~$24B ARR | S-1 June 8, Q3/Q4 2026 | TBD |
SpaceX is the largest of the three at $1.75T and the only one already on the public markets. Anthropic ranks ahead of OpenAI by valuation ($852B) and well ahead on annualized revenue. For details, see my articles on the SpaceX IPO and the OpenAI IPO.
12. Risks for investors
As impressive as the numbers are, an investment in Anthropic would be anything but a sure thing. These points are worth knowing:
- Extreme valuation: Around 20 times revenue leaves little room for disappointment. A lot of future growth is already priced in.
- Fierce competition: OpenAI and Google are right on Anthropic's heels. Model leadership can shift with every new generation.
- High capital needs: Training the models burns billions. Despite high revenue, Anthropic is still burning cash.
- No profit yet: Like most AI labs, Anthropic is not yet profitable. The path to the black is not guaranteed.
- IPO and market timing: A weak market environment in October 2026 could pressure the offer price or push back the date.
- Concentration on a few large customers: A meaningful share of revenue depends on a handful of enterprise customers. If one leaves, it hurts.
My take: the Anthropic IPO will be one of the big financial events of the year, and the company is growing faster than almost any other. But the valuation assumes that pace holds. Anyone getting in once the stock is tradable should be aware of the swings and only invest money they can afford to lose. This is not investment advice, just context.
