Anthropic begins testing IPO waters, hires specialist firm that helped Google

Anthropic has started laying the groundworks for an initial public offering.
With a valuation north of $300 billion, Anthropic would be one of the world’s largest IPOs. (Picture: generated)
Just as the AI lab is chasing a funding round said to value it at more than $300 billion, The Financial Times reports they are also considering going public.

This stems from hiring Wilson Sonsini, which assisted Google and LinkedIn in their initial public offerings, and apparently having talks with «big investment banks.» They have also hired Krishna Rao, the former Airbnb executive who played a key role in their IPO in 2020, CNBC says.

The timeline does not seem clear, while the report indicates that it could happen as soon as 2026, it also notes that the talks are in informal and early stages.

Anthropic has 300,000 business and enterprise customers, and is aiming to triple its annual revenue to around $26 billion next year, Reuters writes.

Its IPO could be one of the biggest ever, and would be a test of investors’ appetite for loss-making companies with huge investment bills, FT notes.

Read more: Scoop by The Financial Times, writeups from Reuters and CNBC.