Labs

Anthropic files confidentially
for IPO at
$965B, beats OpenAI
to the SEC

The Claude maker submitted draft paperwork on June 1, days after a $65 billion Series H round, and is targeting a roughly October 23 listing — putting it ahead of rival OpenAI in the race to Wall Street.

By Casey Vanderhoof Frontier labs correspondent · June 7, 2026

Anthropic submitted draft IPO paperwork to the SEC on June 1, days after closing a $65 billion Series H at a $965 billion post-money valuation, and is targeting an approximate October 23 listing, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. The filing puts the Claude maker ahead of OpenAI in the race to public markets, an order of operations that would’ve read as implausible eighteen months ago.

“The number of shares to be offered and the price have not yet been set,” Anthropic said in a company blog post. Under SEC rules, the official prospectus need only reach investors at least 15 days before any roadshow, per CNBC, and the filing can be withdrawn at any time, Fortune notes. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley are expected in key underwriting roles on both the Anthropic and OpenAI listings.

The valuation has more than doubled from the $380 billion mark Anthropic set in February, per Reuters. The Series H was co-led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, Capital Group, Coatue, and D1 Capital Partners, with Blackstone, Brookfield, GIC, General Catalyst, and Insight Partners also participating. For reference: OpenAI set an $852 billion valuation in a $122 billion round in March.

The revenue line is what makes the cap table legible. Anthropic disclosed annualized revenue of roughly $47 billion last month, up from about $9 billion at the end of 2025, an 80-fold increase Fortune attributes to gains in coding and cybersecurity products. That’s the kind of curve that converts a private-market story into an S-1 narrative bankers can actually sell.

It also explains the compute math. CNBC, citing the filing, reports Anthropic will pay SpaceX $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for capacity at the Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, with a 90-day termination notice on either side. Fifteen billion dollars a year in compute isn’t a research budget. It’s an operating commitment that requires public capital, or something that looks a lot like it.

The political overlay is awkward. Anthropic is in litigation against the Trump administration over a Pentagon blacklisting earlier this year, even as President Trump told CNBC in April that a DOD deal with Anthropic was “possible.” The company is now filing into a window where its largest potential customer is simultaneously its legal adversary and its courtship target.

That Anthropic is doing this before OpenAI, the louder, larger, and more politically entangled rival, is the structural tell. The first AI lab to reach public markets sets the comp. Everyone after gets priced against it.

Sources