Anthropic points to AI dangers, soaring sales in $100b IPO filing
Anthropic, one of the world's leading artificial intelligence companies, made public its plans to sell shares on the stock market on Monday. The filing showed that sales are growing very quickly, but it also warned of serious safety risks. The planned listing is a major test of whether the AI boom can turn into profits.
The filing warns investors about several dangers, including the company's conflict with the Trump administration, the risk of AI systems acting on their own, and the huge amounts of money it has committed to spending on computing power.
The listing would be the first by one of the independent companies leading the race to build advanced AI. Its main rival, OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, has delayed its own stock market debut until next year.
The listing also comes after SpaceX went public in June. SpaceX owns Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, and its shares fell sharply after a strong first day of trading.
If investors respond poorly to Anthropic's listing, it could weaken their interest in AI. The sector has become an important driver of the US economy, even as concerns grow that the market may be in a bubble.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Anthropic aims to go public during the week of November 16, although the timing could change.
The offering could raise as much as US$100 billion through an initial public offering (IPO), a sale of shares to the public. The Wall Street Journal added that the sale could value Anthropic at between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company's 400-page prospectus, a document explaining the offering to investors, spends more than 90 pages describing risks specific to the industry. In recent months, several reports have described AI systems behaving in unexpected and harmful ways.
The filing also reflects a strong belief among Anthropic's researchers that AI must be developed by people who can keep it safe. Otherwise, its extraordinary abilities could be misused, while China gains an advantage.
The filing warned that advanced AI systems "could pose catastrophic or existential risks to society if not developed and deployed responsibly."
Anthropic also warned that its "engagement with policymakers and public positions on AI regulation and safety could subject us to heightened scrutiny, political backlash, or disproportionate regulatory action." In other words, its work with policymakers and its public views on AI rules and safety could bring more scrutiny, political opposition, or unusually strict government action.
In recent months, the company has come under pressure from the administration of US President Donald Trump because it refused to remove restrictions on how the Pentagon could use its technology. The Defense Department has since labeled Anthropic a national security risk and banned it from serving as a supplier.
Despite these challenges, Anthropic's business has grown very quickly. Sales reached $11.6 billion in the April-June quarter, up from $787 million in the same period a year earlier. For comparison, the company recorded $4.6 billion in sales for all of 2025.
The company made its first operating profit in that quarter, earning close to $1 billion. However, it still reported an overall loss of $80 billion for the first half of the year. Most of this loss came from accounting charges linked to the company's rising value, rather than money it actually spent.
Much of Anthropic's growth comes from businesses using Claude to write software and do office work.
Nearly 12,000 organizations now spend at least $100,000 a year with Anthropic. A year ago, fewer than 1,000 organizations spent that much.
Risks of slower growth
Anthropic warned that its growth will probably slow down, possibly by a lot. Investors will pay close attention to the company's third-quarter figures, which will be released before the IPO.
To run its AI systems, Anthropic has committed hundreds of billions of dollars to computing capacity. These commitments include up to $120.5 billion with SpaceX, about $110 billion with Amazon, and an estimated $125 billion to $150 billion with Google.
The company warned that if demand is lower than expected, it will still have to make many of these payments, even if it does not use all the computing capacity it has agreed to pay for.
The company will have a management structure that gives its founders control rather than its investors.
Anthropic's seven co-founders, led by Chief Executive Dario Amodei and his sister, company President Daniela Amodei, will keep control of just over half of the shareholder votes after the listing. This means outside investors will not be able to outvote them.
Anthropic is registered as a "public benefit corporation." This type of company must consider its goal of developing AI safely as well as its duty to make money for shareholders.
Each co-founder has promised to give 80 percent of their shares to charity. However, the filing notes that these promises are not legally binding.