Anthropic targets an IPO bigger than SpaceX’s record $85.7B raise

Anthropic executives privately hope the company’s initial public offering can match or beat SpaceX’s record June listing, according to Bloomberg sources cited by SiliconANGLE. The Claude maker wants to file by the end of August, ahead of rival OpenAI. In investor briefings, executives haven’t put a number on the valuation.

The bar is high. SpaceX raised $75 billion when it went public in June, the biggest share sale on record, and CNBC puts the full haul at $85.7 billion once the underwriter option is counted. CNBC’s sources say investors project Anthropic could float at a valuation of about $2 trillion. That’s roughly double the $965 billion the company was valued at in May, when it raised $65 billion.

The revenue growth behind those numbers is real. Anthropic generated more than $11.5 billion in second quarter sales, up from $787 million a year earlier, and its revenue run rate topped $65 billion at the end of July. The catch is what it costs: the company posted a net loss of nearly $42 billion in 2025, up from $8.3 billion the year before.

Figure	What it measures	Period
$11.5 billion+	Quarterly revenue, up from $787 million a year earlier	Q2 2026
$65 billion	Annualized revenue run rate	End of July 2026
Nearly $42 billion	Net loss, up from $8.3 billion in 2024	2025
$965 billion	Valuation at its last raise of $65 billion	May 2026
About $2 trillion	Valuation investors project at float, per CNBC’s sources	Projected

The filing itself is expected to name an unusual risk: the public. CNBC’s sources say Anthropic’s prospectus is likely to list AI backlash as a key risk factor. In “test-the-water” meetings with bankers and investors in San Francisco, CFO Krishna Rao has fielded questions on competition, margin pressure from open-source models, and what happens if data center construction slows.

SpaceX’s own filing flagged broader forces in its risk factors section.

Adverse global macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions may negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.

SpaceX risk factors, via CNBC

The backlash isn’t hypothetical. A Gallup poll published in May found seven in 10 Americans oppose an AI data center in their area, with 48% strongly opposed and only about a quarter in favor. Opposition ran higher than for a local nuclear plant, 71% to 53%. With midterms less than three months away, CNBC notes that politicians in both parties are pushing back on data center development.

That matters because compute capacity is directly tied to revenue for AI labs. Anthropic spends billions of dollars on compute each month, per SiliconANGLE, and recently agreed a three-year deal to buy computing from SpaceX that could be worth tens of billions. That comes on top of its $45 billion Nscale compute deal in West Virginia.

The race with OpenAI shapes the timing. Both companies have filed confidentially, Anthropic in June, but Sam Altman is reportedly considering holding off until 2027 because he’s insisting on a $1 trillion valuation that isn’t yet feasible. Semafor reported that OpenAI’s quarter-on-quarter sales growth cooled to 18% while losses deepened, and that Anthropic’s annualized revenue now runs more than 50% above OpenAI’s.

Anthropic is working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase on the listing, and it’s looking to close a revolving credit facility above its target of roughly $10 billion. Its co-founders are also weighing “super-voting” shares to retain control, the structure Elon Musk used at SpaceX. The thing to watch is the calendar: Bloomberg’s sources say Anthropic hopes to file by the end of August, and that deadline is now days away.