Anthropic's IPO filing sheds new light on who stands to make money from public debut
On Monday, Anthropic filed documents for its long-awaited stock market listing. The filing gave investors new details about how much some of the biggest names in technology and finance could gain when the artificial intelligence startup sells shares to the public.
Anthropic, the company that makes Claude, is getting ready for a possible stock market listing in November. Its IPO, or first sale of shares to the public, could rival SpaceX's (SPCX) listing as the largest IPO in history.
The new filing explains a funding deal with Alphabet, the parent company of Google (GOOG, GOOGL). The deal could give Anthropic up to $20 billion in additional funding.
The amount could be reduced by as much as $10 billion if Google uses an option to buy Anthropic shares that do not carry voting rights. Google could buy these shares in a private sale alongside the IPO, at the same price offered to public investors.
Google's funding deal limits its ownership to 14.99% unless the company chooses to waive that limit. According to the filing, Anthropic had not taken any money from this funding arrangement by June 30.
Amazon (AMZN), another major investor in Anthropic, holds about $6.2 billion in outstanding convertible notes. These are loans that can be turned into shares. According to the filing, the notes could become about 1.84 billion shares without voting rights when Anthropic completes its IPO.
This conversion is subject to a 12% ownership limit, which Amazon can choose to waive. Any notes that cannot be converted because of this limit will remain outstanding and could be converted into more shares after the IPO.
A July disclosure put the recorded value of Amazon's various investments in Anthropic at $190.4 billion.
Amazon has also agreed to provide up to $15 billion in extra funding if Anthropic reaches certain targets for computing capacity. As of June 30, neither Amazon's nor Google's funding arrangements had been used to provide money.
But Amazon and Google could gain much more than money from their ownership stakes in Anthropic. Anthropic is also a major customer of Amazon Web Services, which provides cloud computing power and helps deliver Anthropic's AI models to customers.
Anthropic made $16.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, more than it made in all of last year. But during those six months, the company also spent nearly $9 billion on computing and infrastructure, according to the filing.
The AI company has also agreed to spend about $450 billion on cloud computing over the coming years. This includes deals with Amazon and Google.
"Amazon is going to be the biggest beneficiary because it can win twice," Harrison Rolfes, a senior analyst at PitchBook, told Yahoo Finance last month. "It wins on compute sales, it wins on investment," he added.
Both technology companies are due to report their third-quarter earnings later this week.
The filing also revealed details about Anthropic's venture capital investors. These include Spark Capital, whose related funds bought about $777 million in preferred shares across six funding rounds from 2023 through 2026.
Spark Capital is connected to Anthropic's board through director Yasmin Razavi, a general partner at the investment firm. Other investors in Anthropic include Menlo Ventures, Coatue Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with funds managed by Fidelity and Blackstone.
Some shareholders have already turned part of their investments into cash before the IPO. In April, Anthropic arranged a sale that allowed shareholders to sell about $4.66 billion worth of shares. Those who took part included CEO Dario Amodei, President Daniela Amodei and other executives. However, the filing did not say how much money each person received.
The filing did not list the ownership percentages of Amazon, Alphabet or other major institutional investors in its table of principal shareholders. Instead, the table identified the founders and people who hold special voting rights.
After the IPO, Anthropic's founders will control 50.1% of the company's voting power through a separate class of shares. A trust will also have the right to choose most of the company's directors.
David Hollerith reports on many parts of the financial industry, including Wall Street, banking, asset management, cryptocurrency and financial technology. You can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @DsHollers.