Anthropic Secretly Files for an IPO, AI Unicorn Aims for the Largest Public Listing in History

On June 1, 2026, local time, Anthropic, the Claude large-model developer—AI unicorn Anthropic—announced on its official website that it has secretly submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in accordance with the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, formally kicking off the preparations for an initial public offering (IPO). This is a common “confidential filing” system in U.S. markets: during the SEC’s closed-door review, companies do not need to publicly disclose full financial details, and the prospectus is only required to be disclosed 15 days before the roadshow. If the IPO is ultimately delayed, sensitive information can also be prevented from leaking.

The timing of Anthropic’s filing is extremely delicate—just one week before the application was submitted (in late May), the company had just completed a $65 billion Series H funding round led by Altimeter Capital, Sequoia Capital, and others. The post-money valuation reached $965 billion, surpassing competitor OpenAI (about $852 billion) for the first time and becoming the highest-valued private AI company in the world. Supporting this valuation is astonishing business growth: the company’s disclosed annualized revenue run rate (ARR) has already surpassed $47 billion, its revenue in Q1 2026 was $4.8 billion, and it is expected that Q2 will exceed $10.9 billion and achieve its first quarterly operating profit.

If things progress smoothly, Anthropic could be listed as early as fall 2026, with the potential to become the largest IPO in AI history, raising funds that may exceed $60 billion—second only to SpaceX. By comparison, although OpenAI is also preparing to list, CEO Sam Altman said it will “go when the time is right.” Anthropic is therefore temporarily ahead in the IPO race.

Analysts say Anthropic’s early push into the public market is intended to lock in deeper capital channels amid the current AI investment boom, supporting the massive procurement of computing power and the construction of data centers needed for large-model training. The potential wave of concentrated listings of Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX in 2026 could create the most eye-catching “IPO super cycle” since the internet bubble.

Of course, Anthropic also stated cautiously that whether to move forward with the IPO ultimately depends on market conditions and the results of regulatory review; the number of shares to be issued and the pricing range have not yet been determined.