Anthropic could be worth $2 trillion when it goes public

Ars Technica News

Summary

Anthropic could be worth $2 trillion at IPO, having filed with the SEC and reaching $965B valuation, but faces export controls, legal clashes with the US government, and rising customer cost sensitivity.

<p>Anthropic investors expect the AI startup to float at a valuation of $2 trillion or more in October, a dizzying figure that would eclipse SpaceX and make the AI lab’s debut the largest-ever initial public offering.</p> <p>Half a dozen of the company’s backers told the FT that Anthropic’s rapidly rising revenue would enable it to more than double its current valuation in a planned autumn float.</p> <p>A listing at that level could unlock billions of dollars in gains for the five-year-old company’s early investors but would also test public markets that are growing more nervous about the AI boom.</p><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/anthropic-could-be-worth-2-trillion-when-it-goes-public/">Read full article</a></p> <p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/anthropic-could-be-worth-2-trillion-when-it-goes-public/#comments">Comments</a></p>
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# Anthropic could be worth $2 trillion when it goes public Source: [https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/anthropic-could-be-worth-2-trillion-when-it-goes-public/](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/anthropic-could-be-worth-2-trillion-when-it-goes-public/) Anthropic declined to comment\. The startup led by Dario Amodei filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, putting the company in a quiet period that limits public announcements about its financial performance\. Anthropic has gained ground on rivals OpenAI and Google this year, releasing models that have outperformed competitors while focusing on sales to business customers\. The group announced in May that its annualized revenue had surpassed $47 billion\. Venture capitalists, sovereign wealth funds, and other institutional investors have poured just under $100 billion into the company in 2026\. Anthropic’s valuation leapfrogged OpenAI’s for the first time in May, reaching $965 billion, including the new investment\. But the group also faces considerable uncertainty\. It has repeatedly clashed with the Trump administration and remains in active litigation against the US Department of Defense, which labeled Anthropic a supply\-chain risk earlier this year\. Anthropic has since been forced to briefly pull its leading models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, after being hit with export controls by the Commerce Department in June\. The episode spooked some customers who rely on Anthropic models\. Customers are also increasingly sensitive to the price of accessing the best models\. Faced with spiraling costs, they have, in some cases, reversed directives for employees to maximize their AI use and opted for less powerful, cheaper models\. Anthropic’s market\-leading model costs more than two and a half times as much to use as OpenAI’s flagship, while Chinese open\-weight alternatives, which have also improved dramatically this year, are a fraction of the cost, according to Artificial Analysis, which analyzes AI models\. Anthropic increased its market share among US businesses last month, according to data from payments group Ramp\. But analysts at the company found that businesses were “hitting their limit on AI spend” and turning to cheaper alternatives\. “It’s easy to come up with challenges,” said an Anthropic investor who has also backed AI groups including OpenAI and SpaceX, which went public at a $1\.77 trillion valuation in June\. “But the company continues to be in first position in performance, positioning, and what people want exposure to\.” *Additional reporting by Zijing Wu and Ivan Levingston\.* *[© 2026 The Financial Times Ltd](https://www.ft.com/)\.[All rights reserved\.](https://www.ft.com/)Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way\.*

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