Anthropic Investors Targeting $2 Trillion IPO Valuation in October. Yes, Trillion with a T.

The company that makes the AI I use to help research articles (yes, the irony isn't lost on me) is reportedly planning the largest IPO in history.

Anthropic investors expect the Claude developer to pursue a valuation of at least $2 trillion when it goes public in October, according to the Financial Times. That would surpass SpaceX's record and make a five-year-old AI company worth more than the GDP of most countries.

The numbers behind the confidence are staggering. Anthropic's annualised revenue hit $47 billion in May. Investors expect it to reach $100-120 billion by December. That's more than 10x growth in a single year. One backer told the FT that 800% annual growth justifies at least 30x revenue, which would actually put the valuation closer to $3 trillion.

Nearly $100 billion in venture capital, sovereign wealth, and institutional money has poured into Anthropic during 2026 alone, pushing its valuation to $965 billion in May and surpassing OpenAI for the first time.

Jim Cramer weighed in on CNBC, dismissing bubble concerns and arguing the revenue growth backs up the valuation.

Not everyone is convinced. Anthropic's top model costs more than 2.5x OpenAI's flagship offering, while Chinese open-weight alternatives are available at a fraction of the price. The company also faced friction with the Trump administration after the Defence Department labelled it a supply-chain risk, and export controls in June forced a temporary withdrawal of two models.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan are leading the offering. OpenAI filed its own IPO paperwork a week later and is reportedly eyeing a valuation above $1 trillion, though it may push to 2027.

What this means for founders: If Anthropic lists at $2 trillion, it resets every valuation benchmark in AI. Every startup building on Claude's API, every competitor, every adjacent tool gets repriced against that number. It also tests whether public markets will pay private-market multiples for AI companies, which affects fundraising conditions for every AI startup in the pipeline. If it works, capital flows faster. If it doesn't, the correction hits everyone.

Anthropic filed confidentially with the SEC in June and is now in its quiet period.

Sources: Financial Times (August 13, 2026), PYMNTS, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Quartz.