Anthropic IPO Draws Attention as Application-Software Deals Slow

Anthropic’s confidential IPO filing is drawing attention to frontier artificial-intelligence companies as global private-equity-backed application-software deals decline and the cost of building advanced models comes into focus.

Anthropic, PBC submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 1. The company said the offering’s timing would depend on market conditions and other factors, while the number of shares and offering price had not been set.

“This gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review,” Anthropic said in the announcement.

A possible listing as soon as mid-November has been discussed, with formal marketing potentially beginning the week of Nov. 9. That timetable has not been confirmed by Anthropic. A valuation of more than $2 trillion has also been associated with the confidential prospectus, but no valuation has been set in a public filing.

Figures from the confidential prospectus indicate that Anthropic’s revenue grew roughly 12 times in 2025 to nearly $4.6 billion. The company recorded a net loss of about $42 billion and an operating loss exceeding $8 billion. The net loss included a large accounting charge tied to financing instruments.

The filing also indicates that Anthropic expects at least $518 billion in cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations over roughly the next decade. About 80% of those commitments were described as non-cancelable or payable regardless of usage. The obligations include at least $111.1 billion with Google, $110 billion with Amazon and $31.4 billion with Microsoft over the next seven to 10 years.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Sept. 29 that OpenAI would eventually go public but was being patient. The company has not confirmed a 2026 IPO, leaving its listing timetable uncertain.

The application-software market has also weakened. Private-equity-backed application-software deals fell to 3,665 globally in 2025 from 4,638 in 2024, a 21% decline.

The figures show slower software deal activity alongside heightened attention on frontier AI companies, but they do not establish that Anthropic or OpenAI displaced specific software companies from the IPO market.

Anthropic’s complete financial statements, risk factors and proposed share structure are not publicly available because the S-1 remains confidential. The company said the proposed offering “will depend on market conditions and other factors.”