Anthropic investors bet on $2tn valuation in record IPO
Rapid revenue growth fuels hope that the Claude maker can overcome challenges to become the biggest listing in history
Anthropic investors expect the AI start-up to float at a valuation of $2tn or more in October, a dizzying figure that would vault SpaceX to make the AI lab’s debut the largest ever initial public offering.
Half a dozen of the company’s backers told the FT that Anthropic’s rapidly rising revenue would enable it to more than double its current valuation in a planned autumn float.
A listing at that level could unlock billions of dollars in gains for the five-year-old company’s early investors but would also test public markets that are becoming more nervous about the AI boom.
Anthropic’s backers say booming demand for the lab’s advanced AI models and tools justifies their lofty expectations. Investors expect the Claude maker’s annualised revenue to be between $100bn and $120bn by the end of 2026 — using the start-up’s preferred measure, which infers full-year sales from recent performance — up by more than 10 times over the course of 2026.
“If Anthropic is growing 800 per cent a year, you’d think at the incredibly low end they would trade at 30 times [revenue],” said one investor in the group. “That would make them a $3tn company.”
Anthropic lacks a publicly listed US peer that would provide a benchmark for its valuation. But companies that are seen as AI beneficiaries, such as data intelligence group Palantir and cloud company Nebius, have traded this year at roughly 55 times revenue.
Several investors said senior Anthropic executives had yet to fix the valuation target for the IPO, even in private conversations. But investors have built their own financial models.
Their bullish projections come despite mounting challenges, including rising competition from Chinese rivals, pressure for AI regulation and a simmering feud with the US government.
Those concerns, particularly the commerce department’s temporary ban on Anthropic’s best models, contributed to overall revenue growth slowing in the month of June, according to two investors with knowledge of the matter. Even so, they said the company had rebounded and continued to grow at an extraordinary rate even by Silicon Valley standards.
Anthropic declined to comment.