Sign up for alerts on breaking news and exclusive reporting from NPRThe artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, maker of the hugely popular Claude AI models, has taken a major step toward holding an initial public offering that analysts expect to be one of the biggest ever.Anthropic filed final paperwork with regulators on Monday for an IPO under the ticker symbol ANT that reports have said could value the company at between $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion.That would put it in league with Elon Musk's rocketry and AI company SpaceX, which was valued at around $1.8 trillion when it listed in June.Anthropic's listing prospectus did not say how many shares the company will offer or at what price range.The filing of a public version of a registration statement called a Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission is a major milestone in Anthropic's meteoric rise.
It was launched just five years ago by a breakaway group of OpenAI researchers, led by Dario Amodei, who were concerned that that company, run by Sam Altman, was not on a path to develop AI safely.Anthropic has since become a juggernaut, and OpenAI's biggest competitor, with some of the most widely-used AI models on the market.But the company has faced controversy, including a conflict with the Pentagon over how its models can be used, and questions about Amodei's dire warnings on AI risks.The filing comes at a volatile time in the stock market for AI-related companies, as investors waver between exuberance about the positive effects AI could have on the economy and concern about safety and the tsunami of investment in the technology.The IPO, which could happen as soon as November, will be one of the most eagerly anticipated public share offerings in years.
OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, is also planning an IPO, but those plans are temporarily on ice, with Altman ruling out a listing this year as "ill-advised" in the face of swirling AI safety concerns."Going public has a lot of advantages.It brings in ...