Anthropic Files for IPO at $965 Billion — Beating OpenAI to Wall Street

The AI race just moved from the lab to Wall Street. Anthropic — the safety-focused AI company behind the Claude family of models — has confidentially filed IPO paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, setting up one of the most anticipated market debuts in years.

The filing, confirmed on June 1, 2026, comes just days after Anthropic closed a $65 billion Series H funding round that pushed its valuation to $965 billion — surpassing rival OpenAI's $852 billion valuation for the first time. A debut above the $1 trillion mark is now considered the base case if market conditions cooperate.

This is a major story for our Tech & AI coverage — and one that every investor, tech watcher, and AI enthusiast needs to understand.

The Numbers: Why This IPO Is Historic

Anthropic's growth trajectory is one of the most extraordinary in Silicon Valley history:

• Current valuation: $965 billion — just surpassed OpenAI
• Latest funding round: $65 billion Series H, co-led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, Capital Group, Coatue, and D1 Capital Partners
• Revenue run rate (May 2026): $47 billion — up from $10 billion just one year ago
• Revenue growth: Nearly 5x in 12 months
• IPO filing status: Confidential SEC submission — public S-1 to follow at least 15 days before roadshow
• Expected debut valuation: $1 trillion+
• Ticker: ANTH (private market designation)

For context: Anthropic was valued at just $300 billion in late 2024. In roughly 18 months, it has more than tripled in value to nearly $1 trillion.

Beating OpenAI to the Punch

The strategic timing of Anthropic's filing is no accident. By submitting its confidential paperwork first, Anthropic has beaten rival OpenAI — valued at $852 billion — to the starting line of the 2026 IPO race.

OpenAI is readying its own confidential filing but has not yet submitted it to the SEC. The race between the two leading AI labs for Wall Street dominance mirrors their competition in the product market — and Anthropic has now drawn first blood.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives called Anthropic's move "a major step to get ahead of OpenAI" and described it as "an opening of the floodgates for the IPO market, which has been relatively dormant for a few years." He noted that SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI are set to become the three trillion-dollar listings of 2026 — an unprecedented concentration of historic market debuts in a single year.

What Drove Anthropic's Explosive Growth?

Anthropic's rise from underdog to near-trillion-dollar company rests on one primary driver: enterprise adoption of Claude.

The company was founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and a group of researchers who left OpenAI over concerns about the company's direction and commitment to AI safety. From the beginning, Anthropic positioned itself as the safety-first alternative — a differentiation that resonated particularly strongly with enterprise customers in regulated industries like finance, healthcare, and government.

Claude Code — Anthropic's AI coding assistant — has been particularly transformative. CEO Dario Amodei recently stated that Claude is now writing approximately 80% of Anthropic's own code, a statistic that has become one of the most widely cited examples of AI's productivity impact in enterprise settings. The company has more than 300,000 business and enterprise customers.

The same week as the IPO filing, Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4.8 — its most capable model yet, with particular advances in coding and cybersecurity capabilities that, according to the company, have rattled markets and attracted significant new enterprise business.

The Competitive Landscape

Anthropic's IPO filing arrives in a white-hot AI IPO season:

• SpaceX (SPCX) — filed publicly, roadshow underway, listing June 12 at $1.75 trillion target
• Anthropic — confidential filing submitted June 1, expected fall 2026 debut
• OpenAI — confidential filing expected imminently, targeting late 2026

The three companies represent a combined potential market cap approaching $4 trillion — an extraordinary concentration of value in the AI and space technology sectors.

What Comes Next

A confidential IPO filing does not lock Anthropic into a specific timeline. The company's public S-1 prospectus — which will contain detailed financial information, risks, and shareholding structure — must be filed at least 15 days before the roadshow begins.

If Anthropic follows SpaceX's timeline — which filed confidentially April 1 and disclosed its public prospectus May 20 — a fall 2026 debut is the most likely scenario. Market conditions, particularly the current crypto and tech selloff, will influence exact timing.

Key Takeaways

• Anthropic filed confidential IPO paperwork with the SEC on June 1, 2026 — beating rival OpenAI to Wall Street.
• Current valuation is $965 billion after closing a $65 billion Series H round — surpassing OpenAI's $852 billion for the first time.
• Revenue run rate hit $47 billion in May 2026 — up from $10 billion a year ago, nearly 5x growth.
• A $1 trillion+ debut valuation is the base case if market conditions cooperate.
• Claude Code and enterprise adoption drove growth — Anthropic has 300,000+ business customers.
• Alongside SpaceX and OpenAI, Anthropic is one of three expected trillion-dollar IPOs of 2026.
• A fall 2026 public debut is the most likely timeline pending SEC review.