AI company Anthropic has begun preliminary talks with potential investors as part of its IPO preparations. The company took the first formal step in June by filing confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

What the talks cover

The conversations, led by Anthropic chief financial officer Krishna Rao, reportedly do not yet include details such as financial results or a listing valuation. No official date has been announced.

The purpose is to gauge pre-listing interest and investor expectations. Topics on the table include the Claude model family, how Claude Code was developed, the company's position in the enterprise market, its management team and its product launches. No specific valuation is being negotiated.

Where the numbers come from

What feeds the expectations is the rate of revenue growth. The figures disclosed and reported are:

  • Annualised revenue at the end of 2025: roughly $9 billion
  • Annualised revenue disclosed in May: above $47 billion
  • Some investors' expectation for end-2026: $100-120 billion
  • Valuation reached in the May funding round: $965 billion

That May valuation of $965 billion put Anthropic ahead of OpenAI, whose valuation had passed $850 billion in March.

The $2 trillion conversation

Because of that growth expectation, some investors believe Anthropic could reach a valuation above $2 trillion at listing. Some estimates run as high as $3 trillion.

A caveat is warranted here: these are not official targets published by Anthropic. They rest on investors' own analysis of the company's revenue growth and enterprise position, and remain projections until the listing actually happens.

If it materialised, such a valuation would surpass SpaceX, which listed in June at $1.77 trillion, and place Anthropic among the highest-valued IPOs to date.

OpenAI is next in line

OpenAI is also preparing for a listing and has filed confidentially with the SEC. The company has reportedly not yet begun pre-listing talks with investors.

Why this is being discussed now

Pre-listing talks of this kind measure less when a company will list than what price the market is ready for. In conversations held without financial data, investors typically probe the business model, the customer base and whether growth is sustainable. That Anthropic's agenda clusters around the enterprise market and product launches points the same way.

The revenue curve is the real reason for the interest. Annualised revenue moving from roughly $9 billion at the end of 2025 to above $47 billion in May is close to a fivefold increase in under five months. The $100-120 billion range investors discuss for end-2026 assumes that curve continues.

If the assumption fails, so does the $2 trillion figure. IPO valuations are priced against future revenue, and sustaining growth at this scale is something very few companies have managed.