Artificial intelligence developer Anthropic plans to launch what could become the largest initial public offering in history, with existing shareholders offering more than $86 billion in stock through a structured secondary sale. The company, creator of the AI assistant Claude, has set a target valuation between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion for the offering, according to a report by The Information.
The IPO will include a record-breaking insider share sale, allowing early investors and employees to sell a portion of their holdings directly in the offering. This structure enables existing stakeholders to realize gains while permitting the company to allocate the majority of IPO proceeds to preferred long-term investors. To address concerns about insider selling and potential market oversupply, Anthropic is considering extending lockup periods beyond the standard 180 days for at least some shareholders.
Anthropic has also secured a $45 billion, six-year contract with Nscale, a data center campus provider in West Virginia, to rent AI computing capacity. The company projects revenue of approximately $190 billion to $200 billion by 2028, reflecting its rapid expansion in the enterprise AI market.
The IPO filing is scheduled to be made public after the U.S. Labor Day holiday, with an investor day planned for mid-September. The company anticipates launching the offering between late September and early October, pending market conditions and regulatory approvals.
