Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, privately held Anthropic has emerged as one of the most closely watched names in artificial intelligence (AI). The AI biggie has submitted draft registration documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering (IPO Quick QuoteIPO - Free Report) in June, positioning itself ahead of rival OpenAI in the race to public markets.

A Massive IPO on the Way?

Beyond the historic SpaceX (SPCX Quick QuoteSPCX - Free Report) IPO, Anthropic could be the most closely watched public offering of 2026 and potentially the largest pure-play AI company to enter the public markets.

While Anthropic has not announced a specific listing date, October is currently viewed as the earliest possible window. According to Polymarket, there is an 83% probability that Anthropic goes public by the end of October and a 93% probability that it completes an IPO by the end of 2026.

Let’s delve deeper into why Anthropic IPO could be huge.

Anthropic’s Massive Enterprise-Driven Revenue Growth

Anthropic – best known for its Claude chatbot — focuses on enterprise customers. Its high-value, recurring customer base has supported an annualized revenue run rate (ARR) of approximately $65 billion, positioning Anthropic as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in history, as quoted on CNBC.

In May, Anthropic said its run rate topped $47 billion compared to the roughly $10 billion in revenues the company generated for all of 2025. The sheer growth of revenue figure validates its growth trajectory and acceptance.

The latest $65 billion figure is about a sevenfold increase from the year-ago level and higher than its older peer OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate of $40 billion. Anthropic also revealed a preliminary revenue figure of $11.5 billion for the second quarter, a 14-fold jump from a year ago, a source said, as mentioned on CNBC.

Anthropic sees its total addressable market (TAM) exceeding $30 trillion, ahead of the $28.5 ‌trillion estimates from SpaceX, per the Wall Street Journal, as quoted on Reuters.

Also, note that enterprise-led revenue growth normally yields higher profit margins than consumer-facing applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. With Anthropic focusing heavily on enterprise, and coding performance with Claude, its business should generate solid margins over the long run.

Anthropic’s Big-Ticket Deals

The company has been signing back-to-back big-ticket deals in recent times. In April, Anthropic expanded its partnership with Amazon, committing more than $100 billion over 10 years to Amazon Web Services technologies and securing up to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity.

NVIDIA is tied to Anthropic's infrastructure expansion through its chips and financing relationships with cloud providers serving Anthropic. Most recently, Anthropic signed a $35-billion cloud agreement with NVIDIA-backed Lambda.

Salesforce recently expanded its Anthropic partnership through Claudeforce, integrating Claude into Salesforce's platform and Slack. Anthropic has a major relationship with Alphabet and Broadcom, involving Google's cloud infrastructure and TPUs.

Anthropic to Hit a $2T Valuation?

The company has revised its 2028 revenue forecast much higher to between $190 billion and $200 billion in August, per Reuters, according to Stocktwits, as mentioned on Yahoo Finance.

Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation in May, with revenues reaching a $47 billion annualized run rate. Some investors now see the valuation at $2 trillion, while some see it at $3 trillion.

Anthropic carries an estimated $10-15 billion in net losses since 2021, but it is projected to post its first quarterly GAAP operating profit, roughly $1 billion, in the third quarter of 2026, per Value Added VC.

Any Risks?

Anthropic has a fixed commitment of roughly $1.25 billion a month running until May 2029, equal to about $15 billion a year or close to 30% of its estimated 2026 revenues. Chan Ahn, founder and chief executive officer of Tessera PE and a former Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan executive, told Benzinga that the cost side of Anthropic's business runs on contracts, while its revenue side is usage-driven, as quoted on Yahoo Finance.

If capacity arrives faster than traffic, Anthropic may see troubles ahead. Profitability remains a concern, with its projected Q2 operating margin at just 5.1%. Plus, occasional regulatory shocks and growing backlash against AI can cause disruptions in usage.

Bottom Line

Overall, the above-mentioned scenario indicates that a potential Anthropic IPO will likely be hit among investors, if at all it fails to be the best one. OpenAI should also receive great success. However, profitability and cash burn risks remain for the players.

If we compare both the profitability scenario of both companies, OpenAI’s financial trajectory may worsen before improving. By 2028, it projects operating losses at roughly three-quarters of revenues, driven mainly by rising computing costs. Anthropic, meanwhile, expects to break even that year, per the WSJ, as mentioned by Fortune in late 2025.

Against this backdrop, one needs to keep a close tab on IPO ETFs like Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO Quick QuoteIPO - Free Report) .

Other AI ETFs like Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AIQ Quick QuoteAIQ - Free Report) and Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF (CHAT Quick QuoteCHAT - Free Report) may also keep the stock in their kitties. So, these ETFs should be tracked closely. Plus, several single-stock ETFs will likely be launched within days of the IPO to play Anthropic shares.