Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic announced Monday that it has filed for an initial public stock offering, a surprise start to its race against OpenAI to become the next trillion-dollar AI startup to hit the public markets.
The filing, which is currently confidential as the Securities and Exchange Commission reviews it, comes sooner than expected as the maker of Claude AI seeks to beat out its main rival for new financing. Both companies were previously expected to begin operations in the fall.
“This gives us the opportunity to go public once the SEC completes its review,” the company said in a statement. “The number of shares to be offered and the price have not yet been determined.”
Just a few days ago, Anthropic announcement that it was now valued at $965 billion after raising $65 billion in new funding to fuel insatiable demand for its artificial intelligence products.
If Anthropic debuts with a valuation of $1 trillion, it would immediately catapult it into the ranks of the world’s most valuable companies and likely mark the second or third largest IPO ever, behind SpaceX and Saudi Aramco.
Beating OpenAI to market will likely be important for Anthropic, as its commercial debut is expected to take place soon after. SpaceX’s multibillion-dollar IPO.
Many analysts believe that the company that gets to market first will fare better in the funding race, as Anthropic and OpenAI successively seek tens of billions of dollars in new capital.
Already, companies, their suppliers and their customers are seeking billions of dollars in financing in bond markets as they build data centers to fuel the AI revolution.
“We think this represents an opening of the floodgates for the IPO market, which has been relatively dormant for a few years,” said Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush.
A similar event occurred in 2019, when ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft went public.
Shares of Lyft, which went public first, performed better following its IPO. Uber, which started trading in second position, fended its first trading day below its IPO pricewhich is unusual for high-end offerings.
Beating OpenAI in the public markets would also likely be a personal triumph for Anthropic’s founders, several of whom are former OpenAI employees.
The IPO will also enrich them further. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, is already worth $7 billion, according to Forbes.
The company, founded only five years ago, is structured as a “public benefit company”.
Anthropic’s stated goal under this structure is “the responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity.”
While investors have already collectively invested hundreds of billions of dollars in companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX and other large private startups in recent years, the public market remains the most efficient way for companies to access the widest possible range of investors and sources of capital.
When a company is private, it is also more difficult for existing employees, managers and investors to easily cash out and sell their shares. By going public, Anthropic opens the door for each of its shareholders to achieve long-awaited returns.
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