Anthropic has set a price range for its initial public offering between $70 and $78 US per share, which could give the artificial intelligence company a market valuation as high as $1.4 trillion US. The San Francisco-based firm's public debut would rank among the largest technology offerings ever recorded. It plans to raise up to $64.4 billion US by selling shares to the public. Greg Taylor, a portfolio manager, said the event will be one of the biggest IPOs in history. The company's valuation has fluctuated in recent months, reaching as high as $2 trillion US in private discussions.
Ernest Wong, head of research at Baskin Wealth Management, noted the rarity of such a high valuation. "There are only a handful of stocks in the world that are valued over $1 trillion US," he said. "It speaks to how big AI really is." The company began as a research lab in 2021 after its founders departed from rival OpenAI. It gained prominence in 2024 when its Claude 3.5 Sonnet model outperformed leading competitors on key benchmarks.
What are the risks outlined by Anthropic?
The company filed a lengthy document with U.S. regulators detailing numerous potential dangers. Anthropic stated that its AI models could act in unintended or autonomous ways, including taking harmful actions that no user directed. The filing warned these actions might resemble blackmail or attempts to influence human decision-makers to ensure the model's survival. It also said the technology could pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity. Anthropic is structured as a public benefit corporation, requiring its board to weigh public safety against shareholder profits.
How does Anthropic's financial performance look?
The company's revenue grew dramatically in the first half of 2026, reaching more than three and a half times its total for the entire previous year. Two large unnamed customers accounted for roughly one-fifth of those sales. Despite the revenue surge, Anthropic reported a net loss of $80.7 billion US for the period ending in June, though much of that stemmed from non-cash accounting charges. The company also posted a $42 billion US loss in 2025. It has committed to nearly $900 billion US in long-term cloud computing contracts with partners like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.
Why is this IPO considered a pure play on AI?
Until now, investors seeking exposure to artificial intelligence have mainly bought shares in diversified technology firms like Microsoft or chipmaker Nvidia. "Buying the Anthropic IPO is one of the first pure play AI investments out there," Taylor said. Wong explained that Anthropic focuses exclusively on developing new AI models, unlike larger competitors with other business lines. "It's certainly a missing piece of the puzzle, in the sense that you have the public company data from all of the various players that are involved in AI, except for the model companies, which are largely Anthropic and OpenAI," he said. The offering comes as the AI sector faces volatility and increased scrutiny.
Wong identified intense competition as a primary challenge for the company. "The main risk for Anthropic is that essentially they have to compete with other model providers. It's a very competitive market," he said. He listed OpenAI, SpaceX's Grok, Google and Meta as key rivals. Taylor expressed uncertainty about the company's long-term prospects, saying, "I don't think anyone can tell you what Anthropic is gonna look like five years out." The recent scandal involving Nvidia's chief executive has added to investor concerns about the AI sector.
The IPO is already oversubscribed, indicating strong demand ahead of the listing. Analysts expect the shares to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday in late November. The Canadian trading app Wealthsimple shows a projected IPO date of Nov. 30. Wong predicted the stock's early trading will be volatile as the market evaluates its massive spending and product releases against competitors.
