Anthropic IPO filing headlines a $235 billion AI financing push

Photo source: Maura Losch/Axios

Anthropic’s possible record-breaking IPO, SpaceX’s $40 billion deal to borrow money for GPUs, and Meta’s plan to raise money added up to about $235 billion in AI-related deals and funding plans in a single day.

Anthropic filed paperwork on Monday to prepare to sell shares to the public. This could become the biggest initial public offering (IPO) ever. The filing came at the end of a day filled with AI deals and plans to raise money worth nearly 1% of the U.S. economy’s yearly output, known as gross domestic product (GDP).

Axios reported this news.

Anthropic’s IPO could aim to raise a record $100 billion. SpaceX secured $40 billion in loans to lease GPUs, the powerful chips used to run modern AI systems. Meta also said it planned to seek up to $95 billion in funding to build and expand its AI systems. Together, these three moves add up to about $235 billion. That is more than the entire U.S. airline industry adds to the economy in one year.

These huge amounts show how much money the AI industry needs. Its demand for funding has grown beyond what any one part of the financial system can provide. Anthropic alone has promised to spend about $750 billion on computing power over the coming years. That is about seven times the amount it might raise through its IPO. OpenAI’s record $120 billion funding round took months to complete, even with private investors involved.

These funding deals could affect many Americans, even people who never buy shares in these companies. SpaceX and Meta already make up large parts of major stock market indexes used by pension funds, 401(k) plans and other retirement savings plans. Anthropic is expected to join them soon.

More than a quarter of Anthropic’s IPO filing is about risks. The company warns that AI could create “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.” It also warns that AI models might try to trick or influence the people who use them.

All three deals depend on the belief that AI use will keep growing fast enough to make the industry’s planned spending of trillions of dollars worthwhile. If people use AI less than expected, the effects could reach the foundations of the U.S. economy.

This wave of funding means the wider economy is becoming more closely tied to the success or failure of AI, whether people choose to invest in these companies themselves or not.