AI giant Anthropic unveils plans for blockbuster share listing
The company will be the first true artificial intelligence company to go public as tech firms continue to invest heavily in AI.
AI powerhouse Anthropic has laid out its plans for a major share sale, as it moves toward a public listing that is likely to become the biggest stock market debut ever.
The artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot disclosed losses of more than $80.7bn (£60.5bn) in the first six months of the year. Over the same period, it said revenue reached $16.3bn.
The number of shares it will offer, along with the price range, has not yet been set.
When Anthropic lists, its valuation is expected to top that of SpaceX, which this summer completed the largest stock listing ever, with an initial valuation of about $1.8 trillion.
The company said it will debut on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. It would be the first genuine AI company to go public, making it an important test for the technology’s future.
Technology firms have been pouring huge sums into expensive AI infrastructure and tools, including data centres and the underlying models that power all AI systems, investing more than $1tn in the past year alone.
Anthropic, founded only five years ago by chief executive Dario Amodei, his sister Daniela Amodei and five other co-founders, said in June that it intended to go public.
Its biggest competitor, OpenAI, soon made a similar announcement, saying it also planned to list. According to a person familiar with OpenAI’s plans, that flotation is now expected early next year.
After those decisions were made, there was a wave of cyber-security and other technology breaches involving their AI agents, or AI bots designed to function with a degree of autonomy.
Current and former employees at both companies also drew attention with fresh warnings that AI was being developed without the ability to protect all of humanity from potential future harms caused by AI tools.
In its latest filings, Anthropic repeated earlier commitments to build AI in ways that benefit people, while also cautioning investors about the risks.