Anthropic, the startup behind the Claude AI assistant, on Tuesday set an initial public offering price range of $70 to $78 per share, positioning what could become the largest IPO in history. At the midpoint, the company would raise $61 billion and achieve a valuation of roughly $1.1 trillion when combined with options and unvested stock. At the top of the range, Anthropic could be valued at $1.4 trillion. The company plans to begin trading as soon as next week.
The five-year-old company has experienced rapid revenue growth, recording $33.2 billion in sales in the first nine months of this year compared to $4.6 billion for all of 2025. Sales in the most recent quarter reached $17 billion, up 1,127% from the same period a year earlier. However, Anthropic has had only one quarter of operating profit and faces nearly $900 billion in committed spending on computer power and data center infrastructure over the next few years. The company acknowledged in its prospectus that such growth rates are not sustainable and it cannot guarantee revenue will continue to grow.
Investor concerns center on customer concentration and the company's unusual structure. Five customers accounted for a quarter of Anthropic's sales this year, with some of those customers also being competitors potentially building their own AI models. The company has implemented a complex share lock-up schedule that permits some non-founder insiders to sell 10% of their holdings immediately, with 23 additional dates over the first year when employees can sell more shares. The seven founders retain majority voting power through a special ownership structure.
The offering comes amid challenging market conditions for AI companies. Last week, AI-linked stocks declined on concerns about data center development, and Nvidia shares fell 5% on Monday following CEO Jensen Huang's admission of an affair and announcement of a foreign intelligence investigation. The Wall Street Journal reported that Anthropic has scheduled meetings with key investors this week and plans to list shares Thursday or Friday next week.