On Monday, Anthropic announced that it has secretly submitted the necessary papers for an IPO, surpassing rival artificial intelligence firm OpenAI in the process.
The action “gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review,” according to a statement from Anthropic. The date of the IPO, according to the company, will be determined by various factors, including market circumstances. There are no established terms regarding the quantity of shares or the price.
Over the past few years, completing IPO documents in confidence has grown in popularity. It enables businesses to get regulatory input prior to the public being able to access their financial data. A 2020 study found that it can help lower the number of litigation.
The announcement of Anthropic’s $65 billion fundraising, which put its valuation at $965 billion, was made just one week prior to this action. Anthropic was worth $380 billion just a few months prior. According to the corporation, its run-rate revenue increased from $14 billion in February to over $47 billion in May.
View more: According to SpaceX, employees, friends, and family will receive 5% of its IPO shares.
The manufacturer of Claude has now submitted documentation to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, making it the second anticipated megacap IPO contender. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that rival AI lab OpenAI, which was most recently valued at $852 billion, will submit its own documentation to regulators in the upcoming weeks.
With the release of its prospectus file in May, SpaceX is the company closest to holding an IPO. Later this month, Elon Musk’s $1.25 trillion company is anticipated to attempt a listing. According to Bloomberg, it is looking to raise roughly $75 billion at a valuation of at least $1.8 trillion.
The businesses are among the most valuable in the United States at their present valuations. According to Dow Jones Market Data, Anthropic’s market capitalization exceeds that of all but the top 12 public U.S. companies.
After Walmart, OpenAI would rank 14th in terms of market capitalization. With a current valuation of $1.25 trillion, SpaceX would rank as the tenth-largest U.S. company by market capitalization, above Micron (MU) and behind Meta Platforms (META).
According to Renaissance Capital, IPOs have raised $28.8 billion so far in 2026, a 144% increase over the same period in 2025. The company previously told MarketWatch that this year will “almost certainly” set a record for IPO proceeds, citing the possibility of IPOs from SpaceX and OpenAI.
According to Renaissance, the two businesses alone are anticipated to raise over $100 billion, or even $150 billion. The company’s data shows that the current record of $142.4 billion in IPO proceeds was reached in 2021.
