AI startup Anthropic has recently been reported to hire the heavyweight Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini, accelerating preparations for its initial public offering (IPO), with a valuation expected to reach $300 billion, making it one of the largest tech industry IPOs in history. At the same time, OpenAI is also conducting preliminary work, indicating a strong competition between the two AI giants. However, under the pressure of significant cash burn and financial burdens, whether both companies can successfully enter the capital market remains full of variables.
Anthropic accelerates preparations for IPO, with a valuation expected to reach $300 billion.
The Financial Times (FT) reported that Anthropic has recently selected the well-known Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini as its legal advisor for the IPO, officially starting the preparatory work for the listing. This firm has previously led the IPOs of large tech companies such as Google, LinkedIn, and Lyft, and has been assisting Anthropic with a significant investment agreement with Amazon since 2022.
Informed sources revealed that Anthropic is in discussions for a new round of private placement, with a valuation potentially exceeding $300 billion to $350 billion. If all goes well, it could be listed as early as 2026, becoming one of the largest IPOs in tech history.
Investors are optimistic about Anthropic if it can 'go public ahead of schedule', which is expected to gain a strong lead in the competition with ChatGPT developer OpenAI.
(Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Anthropic announce partnership: Microsoft and NVIDIA betting $15 billion on Claude)
OpenAI is simultaneously preparing, as the two AI startups enter the 'pre-IPO battle'.
Not only Anthropic, but reports in October also indicate that OpenAI is similarly conducting internal preparations ahead of its IPO, targeting a valuation of up to $1 trillion, with the earliest application expected in the second half of 2026.
Earlier in the news, OpenAI had just confirmed in a capital restructuring that it is still controlled by the OpenAI Foundation, holding a 26% stake, with a valuation reaching $500 billion, making it one of the largest tech companies as well.
Once both companies officially announce their IPOs, it will undoubtedly cause a huge shock in the AI industry and capital markets.
(OpenAI is said to be pursuing an IPO with a valuation of $1 trillion, making it the largest IPO in history.)
Rapid growth accompanied by huge losses: The structural challenges facing AI startups in their IPOs.
However, both Anthropic and OpenAI face the same challenges, including the training costs of AI models and the construction of data centers, which can easily reach several billion dollars, the difficulty in accurately estimating expected revenues and returns, and the ongoing structural losses that make it difficult for investors to predict their long-term financial performance, further shrouding the path to going public in uncertainty.
In this regard, Anthropic has already recruited former senior Airbnb executive Krishna Rao as CFO last year, who played a key role in Airbnb's IPO process. Sources familiar with the situation revealed that Anthropic has also recently strengthened its financial and internal controls according to the 'IPO checklist', indicating that its IPO progress has been scheduled.
It is evident that both companies are actively following public company standards for governance to enhance the feasibility of future listings.
(IBM CEO: The AI industry is a 'difficult-to-recover' gamble, with only a 1% chance of successfully creating AGI with LLMs.)
This article discusses Anthropic's preparations for an IPO in 2026, with a valuation expected to reach $300 billion, aiming to outpace OpenAI, first reported by Chain News ABMedia.