Anthropic eyes IPO that could match or surpass SpaceX’s record: Report

Anthropic is preparing for a potential initial public offering that could rival or even surpass the record set by SpaceX, as investors look far beyond the artificial intelligence company’s current revenue to assess its value.

Anthropic expects to match or exceed the size of SpaceX’s record-setting IPO, Bloomberg News reported. The Claude maker has already confidentially filed for a US listing and is preparing for a public debut that could become one of the biggest in history.

The company’s valuation is being shaped by exceptionally high growth expectations. Reuters reported on August 15, citing people familiar with Anthropic’s financials, that the company is projecting revenue of roughly $190 billion to $200 billion in 2028.

That forecast is far above Anthropic’s current revenue pace and shows how aggressively bankers and investors are looking ahead while trying to value the fast-growing AI company.

$200 billion revenue target

Anthropic’s projected 2028 revenue of $190 billion to $200 billion is more than four times its $47 billion annualised revenue run rate reported in May, according to Reuters.

The company’s revenue has since increased even further. Anthropic’s annualised revenue run rate crossed $65 billion by the end of July, Reuters reported on August 17, citing a person familiar with the matter. That was up sharply from about $9 billion at the end of 2025.

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The pace of expansion is central to Anthropic’s IPO case.

Reuters reported that the company’s revenue run rate had grown more than tenfold annually in each of the three years through early 2026. Investors are therefore being asked to value Anthropic not on its current financial performance alone, but on how large its business could become over the next two years.

For high-growth technology companies that are still investing heavily and have not established mature profits, bankers often use enterprise value-to-revenue multiples. But applying those multiples to forecasts two years into the future is less common.

In Anthropic’s case, the approach reflects both the speed of its growth and the difficulty of measuring the future economics of an AI business that is spending heavily on computing power, model training and hiring.

SpaceX, Palantir among valuation benchmarks

Investors and bankers are looking at companies including SpaceX, Palantir and Cloudflare as reference points for Anthropic’s valuation, Reuters reported.

Those companies provide different comparisons for investors.

Palantir, a major enterprise software company with strong exposure to AI, has become an important benchmark for high-growth software businesses. Cloudflare offers a comparison with a fast-growing cloud infrastructure company. SpaceX, meanwhile, provides a reference for valuing a company on expectations of future scale rather than current earnings.

Reuters reported that Palantir was trading at about 53 times its expected 2026 revenue, while SpaceX and Cloudflare were each valued at about 41.6 times expected 2026 revenue, based on LSEG data at the time of the report.

Applying a revenue multiple to Anthropic’s longer-term projections illustrates why its potential valuation could reach extraordinary levels.

One person cited by Reuters said a $2 trillion valuation was possible, although questions remained about whether such a valuation could hold over time.

Revenue surges as AI demand grows

Anthropic’s latest numbers explain why investors are willing to use such aggressive forecasts.

The company’s annualised revenue run rate rose above $65 billion by the end of July, compared with $47 billion in May and roughly $9 billion at the end of 2025, Reuters reported.

The jump reflects growing demand for Anthropic’s Claude AI products, particularly among businesses using the technology for coding and other workplace tasks.

Bloomberg has also reported that Anthropic generated more than $11.5 billion in preliminary second-quarter revenue, compared with $787 million a year earlier.

That represents more than a 14-fold increase in a year.

The company has also moved closer to operating profitability. Reuters reported in May that Anthropic was projecting a second-quarter operating profit of $559 million on revenue of at least $10.9 billion.

The huge cost of AI

The biggest question for investors is whether Anthropic can turn its extraordinary revenue growth into sustainable profits.

Developing advanced AI models requires enormous spending on GPUs, data centres, model training, inference and employees. Those costs can rise rapidly as companies try to build and deploy increasingly powerful systems.

Anthropic has made major commitments to secure computing capacity, including a multibillion-dollar agreement involving SpaceX. Its spending needs have also pushed the company towards large-scale financing ahead of its IPO.

Reuters reported on August 18 that Anthropic was preparing a revolving credit facility expected to exceed $10 billion, according to Bloomberg News. Banks are competing for positions in the facility as they also seek roles in the eventual IPO.

The financing plans underscore the capital required to support Anthropic’s expansion even as revenue climbs.

Investors are betting that revenue will eventually grow faster than infrastructure and operating costs. As the company scales, computing and other expenses could account for a smaller share of sales, improving margins.

But the strategy carries risks. Heavy AI investment has already raised concerns in financial markets, with some high-profile technology companies facing pressure when investors question whether spending on AI infrastructure will generate sufficient returns.

Anthropic moves ahead of OpenAI

Anthropic is also positioning itself ahead of rival OpenAI in the race to public markets.

The company confidentially filed for an IPO in June, while OpenAI has been considering a listing in 2027. Anthropic has not disclosed the final size, timing or valuation of its offering.

Ahead of the listing, Anthropic is also considering a share structure that would give greater voting power to Chief Executive Dario Amodei and other co-founders, according to a report cited by Reuters. Amodei owns about 2 per cent of the company.

The move would allow the founders to retain greater control after the company becomes publicly traded.

A test for the AI IPO boom

An Anthropic IPO on the scale suggested by Bloomberg would be a major test of investor appetite for artificial intelligence.

The company is being valued on the assumption that its rapid growth will continue and that enormous infrastructure costs will eventually translate into stronger margins. That makes its projected $190 billion to $200 billion of 2028 revenue particularly important.

SpaceX has already demonstrated that investors are willing to back exceptionally large valuations based on future growth. Anthropic’s challenge will be to convince public-market investors that similar expectations can be justified for AI.

For now, the company’s numbers point to extraordinary momentum: annualised revenue above $65 billion by July, a projection of up to $200 billion in 2028 revenue, and preparations for what could become one of the largest US IPOs on record.

The final test, however, will come when investors have to decide how much of that future growth is already reflected in Anthropic’s valuation.

(With inputs from agencies.)