Anthropic Nears Decision on Banks for Potential $2 Trillion IPO

Anthropic is nearing a decision on which investment banks will take leading roles in what could become one of the largest initial public offerings in history, with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs reportedly close to securing key positions.

According to the UK's Financial Times (FT), Anthropic is considering Morgan Stanley for the influential “lead left” role, while Goldman Sachs is expected to act as stabilization agent once the company begins trading.

The Claude developer could make its filing public as soon as this month, under the ticker symbol ANTH, with a stock market debut potentially following in October.

The company is targeting a valuation of as much as $2 trillion. If completed at the proposed valuation, the listing could overtake SpaceX’s earlier $1.78 trillion market value and become the largest IPO on record.

Meanwhile, other major Wall Street banks are expected to participate in the offering. JPMorgan, Citigroup and Barclays have previously provided financing to Anthropic and are among the firms expected to be involved in the broader IPO process.

The prospective listing comes as investors continue to assess how much value can ultimately be attached to rapidly growing AI businesses. Anthropic's July revenue reached an annualized rate of $65 billion, according to the FT, below the $80 billion figure some investors had been expecting.

The IPO is thus potentially an important test of public market appetite for the sector. Anthropic is also facing intensifying competition from OpenAI, which recently launched a new AI model. The FT recently valued Anthropic at $965bn, ahead of OpenAI at $852bn.