Leveraged & Inverse
Leveraged & Inverse
Key Takeaways
- Anthropic’s run-rate revenue could reportedly cross $65 billion by the end of July 2026, up from approximately $9 billion at the end of 2025.[1]
- Media reports suggest that the Claude maker could pursue an offering and valuation large enough to challenge SpaceX's record-setting 2026 debut, but final terms have not been publicly filed.
- The central investor question is whether rapid AI adoption can support Anthropic's large compute commitments, ambitious forecasts and evolving governance responsibilities.
Anthropic, the artificial intelligence (AI) juggernaut behind Claude and Claude Code, is preparing for a potential initial public offering (IPO) that could rank among the largest on record.
For investors, the size of the offering is only part of the story. The more important question is whether Anthropic's rapid revenue growth can keep pace with the cost of building and renting the computing infrastructure needed to develop and operate frontier AI systems.
What is Anthropic?
Anthropic is an AI safety and research company founded in 2021. It develops Claude, a family of large language models (LLMs) used by consumers, developers and businesses for coding, analysis, writing and other knowledge-work tasks. The company says Claude is available through the world's three largest cloud platforms, giving Anthropic broad distribution across enterprise technology environments.
How large could Anthropic's IPO be?
Public reporting has placed a possible Anthropic offering at up to $100 billion and a potential valuation near $2 trillion. If those figures materialize, the deal could challenge SpaceX, which raised $86 billion in June, at a valuation of about $1.75 trillion.[2]
Prediction markets reflect the shifting IPO race. As of August 26, traders assigned Anthropic a 58% probability of finishing 2026 with the year's largest IPO by first-day market capitalization, compared with 44% for SpaceX.[3]
Why compute economics matter
Frontier AI requires vast amounts of computing power. In August, Bloomberg reported that Anthropic agreed to spend $45 billion over six years to rent approximately 460 megawatts of AI cloud capacity from Nscale's West Virginia data center development. The reported agreement would use Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin systems as capacity comes online. That level of spending typically needs to generate a lot of revenue.
Can revenue growth support the valuation?
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Anthropic may present a total addressable market, or TAM, exceeding $30 trillion.[4] TAM is a theoretical estimate of the maximum revenue opportunity available across the markets a company could serve. It is not a revenue forecast and does not account for competition, adoption constraints, pricing, regulation or the cost of capturing that opportunity.
For those of a certain age who may be tempted to see similarities between TAM and excessive tech valuations of the late 90’s, it’s important to note that Anthropic’s revenue is real and growing. Reuters has reported that Anthropic is projecting approximately $190 billion to $200 billion in 2028 revenue. The company said run-rate revenue rose from approximately $9 billion at the end of 2025 to more than $30 billion in April 2026 and crossed $47 billion in May.[5] Run-rate revenue annualizes a recent pace of business; it is not the same as audited annual revenue.
That forecast may help explain why bankers and investors are reportedly looking beyond conventional near-term valuation measures. It also raises the bar for execution.
What’s different about Anthropic’s IPO?
- Governance: Anthropic’s corporate structure is unique. It operates as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) and commits to balance stockholder interests with a stated public benefit and in the interests of people materially affected by the company's conduct.[6]
- Existing Shareholders: Anthropic is considering allowing some existing shareholders to sell stock in the planned IPO.[7]
The bottom line
Anthropic's potential IPO would give public investors direct exposure to one of the fastest-growing companies in generative AI. It could also test how much value the market is willing to assign to long-range revenue forecasts while the cost of compute remains high and the competitive landscape changes quickly.
[1] Source: Bloomberg, Anthropic’s Annualized Revenue Tops $65 Billion Before IPO. 8/17/26
[2] Source: Yahoo Finance, Anthropic Weighs Shareholder Sales In Mega-IPO, Breaking From SpaceX: Report. 8/27/26
[3] Source: Polymarket 8/26/26
[4] Source: The Wall Street Journal, Anthropic Expected to Tell Investors It Sees Over $30 Trillion in Potential Revenue. 8/25/26
[5] Source: Reuters, Anthropic IPO valuation hinges on $190-200 billion 2028 revenue forecast, sources say. 8/14/26
[6] Source: Anthropic
[7] Source: The Information, Anthropic Considers Letting Shareholders Sell In IPO, Departing from SpaceX Playbook. 8/27/26
Leveraged & Inverse
Leveraged & Inverse