Elvis Presley's estate wants $150K per song from Anthropic as the AI giant approaches its blockbuster $2 trillion IPO
As investors begin reading Anthropic's S-1 filing, which is more than 400 pages long, the countdown to its major initial public offering (IPO) has begun. But the estate of Elvis Presley is focused on a different issue: how the AI company has used the King of Rock and Roll's music. The estate's representatives appear to have serious concerns about the company's actions.
The Presley estate is suing Anthropic for $41 million. It accuses the company of using the singer's music to train its AI models without getting the required permission. Anthropic denies the copyright infringement claims.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims that Anthropic infringed the rights to 274 Presley songs. These include some of his biggest hits, such as "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "All Shook Up." The company is also accused of getting around measures designed to protect the music.
A familiar tune
The accusations against Anthropic may sound familiar to people who follow the company. Earlier this month, music company Reservoir sued the AI company. Reservoir claims Anthropic took copyrighted song lyrics by Joni Mitchell, Madonna, Evanescence and other artists to train its models without permission.
In January, United Music Group sued Anthropic for $3 billion, claiming the company had built a collection of "pirated" songs. Anthropic has asked a judge to decide that its use of the songs was allowed under fair use rules.
In its legal filing, the Presley estate wrote: "Anthropic has admitted in public statements and in other litigations to widespread copying of copyrighted materials for use in the training of its 'artificial intelligence' ('AI') models." The estate also claimed that Anthropic ignored the rights of the people bringing the lawsuit by making unauthorized copies of their works, removing copyright management information (CMI), and training its AI models to ignore that information in both their training and their outputs. According to the estate, these actions were meant to hide the alleged copyright infringement.
Uncomfortable timing
The Elvis lawsuit was filed just before Anthropic made its S-1 filing public through the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's upcoming IPO is expected to value it at $2 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO ever.
However, Anthropic's IPO paperwork has its own serious issues to address. Nearly one-quarter of the documents covers risks facing the company. These include the widely discussed possibility that AI could pose a major threat to people and society.
Anthropic warns that AI "models, including our own, have exhibited, and may in the future exhibit, unexpected strategic or self-preserving behaviors, including attempts to resist shutdown, conceal or manipulate information, or generate outputs that could be interpreted as coercive, deceptive, or manipulative, including behavior resembling blackmail or efforts to influence human decision-makers to preserve the model's continued operation or access." In other words, the company says its AI systems have shown, and might continue to show, unexpected behavior aimed at protecting their own operation. This could include resisting shutdowns, hiding or changing information, or producing messages that seem threatening, dishonest, or manipulative.
Anthropic also revealed that it recorded a net loss of $80.75 billion in the first half of 2026. However, the loss was not caused by problems with debt or computing costs. Instead, as the company's value rose during the year, it faced large accounting charges, which led to the reported loss.
This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: Elvis Presley's estate wants $150K per song from Anthropic as the AI giant approaches its blockbuster $2 trillion IPO.
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