Anthropic expects to match or top SpaceX’s record IPO size

ANTHROPIC expects to match or beat the size of SpaceX’s record-setting initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, in the latest sign of overwhelming demand from investors looking to profit from the artificial intelligence boom.

The Claude developer is running the numbers as it prepares to file publicly for its potential mega-IPO as soon as the end of August, the people said.

Recent investor briefings led by chief financial officer Krishna Rao skirted the question of valuation, they said.

Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite firm raised US$75 billion at the outset, making it the biggest first-time share sale ever, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The final figure increased to US$86.2 billion with the so-called overallotment option, which is typically exercised if shares rise in early trading.

Discussions are ongoing and details of Anthropic’s IPO including the size could change, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is not public.

A representative for Anthropic could not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Anthropic’s target reflects how the AI industry’s leaders are transforming the tech investment landscape. The five-year-old company raised US$65 billion in May at a US$965 billion valuation, surpassing rival OpenAI’s valuation of US$852 billion in March when the ChatGPT maker raised US$122 billion.

Though Anthropic saw positive adjusted operating income for the second quarter, it had a net loss of almost US$42 billion in 2025, a roughly five times increase from about US$8.3 billion the year before, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News. 

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Demand for AI has been growing at speed, as a sharp increase in Anthropic’s revenue shows.

The company saw preliminary second quarter revenue of more than US$11.5 billion, compared to US$787 million in the corresponding period in 2025, and its run rate, a metric that projects full-year revenue from a shorter period, hit US$65 billion by the end of July, Bloomberg News reported.

Very high cost

Anthropic and its rivals are grappling with the very high cost of building more advanced AI systems, some of the people said.

Training so-called frontier models requires huge amounts of computing power – in just one of its agreements with data centre owners, Anthropic agreed to a deal with SpaceX for computing resources that could be worth tens of billions of US dollars over the next three years.

Anthropic is on track to make its public debut ahead of OpenAI, which is now looking at a listing in 2027, Bloomberg News reported. Both companies have filed confidentially for their respective listings. 

Ahead of its public filing, Anthropic is set to finalise a revolving credit facility that will raise more than its roughly US$10 billion target, people familiar with the matter have said.

Anthropic is working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase on the IPO, and other banks could be added, Bloomberg News has reported. 

Anthropic is considering adopting so-called super-voting shares that would give chief executive officer Dario Amodei, who owns about a 2 per cent stake, and his fellow co-founders greater control over the company, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Information was first to report the super-voting stock.

A first-time share sale topping SpaceX would easily power 2026 to become the best year on record for US IPO volume, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Newly-listed companies have already raised US$160.6 billion through Aug 19, trailing 2021’s high watermark of US$195.2 billion, the data show.

Anthropic’s debut would add to a year that’s already delivered two of the largest-ever listings, with South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix raising US$26.5 billion in its first-time sale of American depositary receipts. BLOOMBERG