Anthropic files for IPO: $16.3B in 6 months and 7 founders to hold 50.1% voting control

• Anthropic submitted its S-1 registration paperwork on October 26, aiming to list its shares on the Nasdaq stock market under the ticker ANT.
• Revenue reached $16.3 billion in the first six months through June 30, up from $1.16 billion in the same period a year earlier.
• A special one-share system gives Anthropic's seven co-founders 50.1% of the company's total voting power.

Anthropic's seven co-founders will keep control of most voting decisions through a system built around a single share. This unusual arrangement is described in the company's S-1 filing, submitted to the US regulator on October 26. The company plans to go public on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT.

In the six months ending June 30, Anthropic earned $16.3 billion in revenue, compared with $1.16 billion in the same period a year earlier. In the second quarter, the company made $974 million in operating profit from $11.6 billion in revenue.

The registration document does not yet state the expected share price range, the total amount committed to computing resources, or the revenue for the third quarter. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are leading a group of 22 financial institutions helping manage the share sale.

Reports say Anthropic is aiming to list its shares during the week of mid-November. The company is reportedly seeking to raise $100 billion and could be valued at between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion. However, the official filing does not give a specific valuation.

A profitable quarter despite an $80.7 billion loss

Most of the reported losses came from accounting changes rather than actual cash payments. The S-1 filing shows that $72.4 billion of the losses came from reductions in the recorded value of convertible notes. These notes can become more valuable as Anthropic's company valuation rises.

Another $8.8 billion in expenses came from agreements under which Google and Amazon bought Series G-2 shares for $259.14 each, compared with $589.01 per share for Series H. After adjusting for these items, Anthropic's net income for the six-month period reached $2.7 billion.

Revenue for the half-year rose to $4.6 billion, up from $386 million in 2024 and $41 million in 2023. More than 80% of third-quarter earnings came from model versions released during the previous six months.

Costs for computing power and infrastructure fell from 251% of revenue in the first quarter of 2025 to 48% in the second quarter of 2026. However, company leaders warn that profit margins will change depending on when computing equipment and services arrive. These resources are often purchased 12 to 18 months in advance. As of June 30, Anthropic held $112.4 billion in cash and $19.3 billion in short-term investments.

The filing also describes important business risks. More than 11,900 business customers each spent at least $100,000 with Anthropic over the previous 12 months. This was up from about 950 customers a year earlier. Net revenue retention was around 900%, meaning revenue from existing customers had grown to about nine times its earlier level under the measure used in the filing.

No single customer accounted for more than 10% of revenue during the first nine months of 2026. The five largest customers together brought in about 25% of revenue. However, cloud partners such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft accounted for 48% of revenue in the first half of the year, even though these companies also offer competing AI models.

“Anthropic filing a confidential S-1 starts the clock on what will be the most scrutinized public offering in tech history, and the number that determines everything is gross margin. It will either validate or collapse the entire narrative the private markets have been pricing for three years. While conventional reading suggests Anthropic seized the narrative advantage by filing first, OpenAI now holds a free option to observe how institutional investors react to audited frontier AI financials before committing to its own price,” said Harrison Rolfes, a senior research analyst covering late-stage companies at PitchBook. He said the company's gross margin, or the money left from sales after direct costs, would be key to judging its business model. He also said that filing first could give Anthropic an advantage, while allowing OpenAI to watch how investors respond before setting a price for its own planned share sale.

Seven founders, one share

Dario Amodei led research at OpenAI before founding Anthropic with his sister, Daniela Amodei, in January 2021. Before that, she oversaw safety and policy work at OpenAI.

The other co-founders are Tom Brown, chief compute officer; Jack Clark, head of the Anthropic Institute; Jared Kaplan, chief science officer; Sam McCandlish, chief architect; and Christopher Olah, head of research into how AI systems work and make decisions. In a joint letter, the founders said they believe artificial intelligence is an extraordinary milestone in human history.

Founder LLC owns one special Class F share that gives the seven founders 50.1% of the voting power over general company decisions. This does not include board seats assigned to the Long Term Benefit Trust. That trust is guided by five independent trustees and owns Class T shares that give it majority oversight of the board.

The company has also set rules that can increase the number of shares over time. Anthropic gave 846,840,960 Class N shares, equal to 5% of all shares on a fully diluted basis, to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund. The board can authorize another 2% in shares each time the stock price rises 50% above its previous milestone.

The public share sale will also trigger a $2.9 billion expense related to restricted stock units, or RSUs, which are company shares given to employees under certain conditions. A further $23.7 billion in related expenses will be recorded over about 2.1 years.

Major investors continue to support Anthropic. A Series H funding round closed on May 28, raising $65 billion at a company valuation of $965 billion. Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia led the round. Tech Funding News had previously reported on early fundraising plans that targeted a valuation of $350 billion. Those plans later grew to $380 billion in February.

Landlords, rivals, and computing costs worth hundreds of billions

Anthropic has made large commitments to companies that provide its computing infrastructure. Some of these companies are also its direct competitors and lenders.

Signed leases that have not yet started require about $321.4 billion in future payments. The company has also committed to $265.6 billion in fixed purchases. Named infrastructure providers include Google, with at least $114.5 billion in commitments; Amazon, with $110 billion; and Microsoft, with $44.9 billion.

Google, Amazon, and Broadcom also offer $77 billion in credit facilities that Anthropic has not yet drawn on. Broadcom has separately provided $161.2 billion in equipment leases that can only be used to pay rent for its own infrastructure. AMD has also agreed to buy up to $5 billion in Anthropic stock as it supplies graphics processing units, or GPUs, used for computing.

SpaceX, which entered the public markets in June, is another major computing provider, with commitments of up to $120.5 billion. Meanwhile, London-based Nscale disclosed in its regulatory filings commercial agreements worth up to $44.6 billion. These agreements were finalized on August 25.

Investor interest in Anthropic is strong, but the details in its filing raise important questions about the company's future. The seven founders hold 50.1% of voting power, and the company has committed hundreds of billions of dollars to long-term computing leases. Its public listing will be an important test of how stock market investors value leading AI companies, including their business costs and unusual systems of corporate control.