On October 26, 2026, Anthropic made its S-1 registration statement public with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, formally launching its initial public offering. The filing shows revenue growth of 14x in a single year and an $80.75 billion net loss for the first half. Price, share count and final valuation have not yet been set. The offering could become the largest IPO in history.
🔑 Key takeaways
- S-1 filed on October 26, 2026 under reference 0001628280-26-067168, targeting the ANT ticker on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
- First-half 2026 revenue of $16.29 billion, up 1,300% year on year, with a first profitable quarter among the six presented.
- Net loss of $80.75 billion, of which $72.39 billion carries no cash outflow.
- Contractual minimum compute commitments above $224.5 billion with Amazon and Google, and $269.4 billion with Microsoft.
The S-1 numbers: explosive growth, an accounting black box
Anthropic’s revenue rose from $41 million in 2023 to $386 million in 2024, then $4.6 billion in 2025. In the first half of 2026 alone, the company booked $16.29 billion, compared with $1.16 billion a year earlier, an increase of 1,300%. The second quarter of 2026 contributed $11.56 billion by itself, more than the company’s cumulative revenue through the end of 2025.
| Indicator | Amount |
|---|---|
| Revenue 2023 | $41 million |
| Revenue 2024 | $386 million |
| Revenue 2025 | $4.6 billion |
| Revenue first half 2025 | $1.16 billion |
| Revenue first half 2026 | $16.29 billion |
| Operating income Q2 2026 | $974 million |
| Cash and short-term investments at September 30, 2026 | $131.7 billion |
The quarter also marked a swing to positive operating income of $974 million, after a loss of $1.67 billion in the previous quarter. It is the first profitable quarter among the six presented. Adjusted for stock-based compensation and the Bartz settlement, adjusted operating income reached $2.24 billion.
A net loss that is not a cash burn
The first-half net loss of $80.75 billion should not be read as a cash burn. Of that figure, $72.39 billion stems from the upward revaluation of convertible instruments, derivative liabilities and accelerated investment vehicles, all financing-related items with no cash outflow. Measured against operating income, these losses amount to just $693 million. For reference, the 2025 net loss was $41.97 billion on $4.59 billion of revenue.
The pressure point: compute spending
Compute and infrastructure spending reached $8.95 billion in the first half of 2026, already more than the $7.33 billion spent across all of 2025. This pace is the variable investors will need to watch most closely.
Measured against history: where does it rank?
The global record belongs to SpaceX, whose June 12, 2026 listing raised $75 billion at the fixing price, or up to $85.7 billion including the over-allotment option. The deal valued the company at roughly $1.75 trillion, and the shares rose 19% on the first day of trading. Behind it, the ranking is still dominated by emerging markets.
| Offering | Year | Amount raised |
|---|---|---|
| SpaceX | 2026 | $75 billion ($85.7 billion with over-allotment) |
| Saudi Aramco | 2019 | $25.6 billion ($29.4 billion with greenshoe) |
| Alibaba | 2014 | $21.8 billion |
| SoftBank Corp | 2018 | $21.3 billion |
| Agricultural Bank of China | 2010 | $19.2 billion |
In total, the 25 largest IPOs in history have attracted $420.6 billion. If Anthropic raises the $100 billion cited by Reuters, the deal would beat SpaceX’s record by 17% (33% against the $75 billion fixing figure). It would alone account for nearly a quarter of the $420.6 billion raised by those 25 offerings. A valuation above $2 trillion, also reported by the press, would make it the most valuable company ever to list, only weeks after SpaceX.
These figures remain assumptions. The public S-1 sets no price, share count or valuation. Some existing investors argued in September for a listing at $1.5 trillion rather than $2 trillion, after quarterly results fell short of expectations. The headline number does not yet exist.
A paradoxical market: fewer IPOs, much larger tickets
The backdrop is hardly a frenzy. So far in 2026, 107 U.S. offerings have been priced, down 30% year on year, compared with 202 IPOs raising $44 billion across 2025. The peak remains 2021, with 397 IPOs and $142 billion raised.
Proceeds, however, are surging: $148.3 billion raised in 2026, a 362% increase on a comparable basis. The market is accepting fewer deals, but the handful of mega-offerings it selects now weigh more than everything else. Nvidia is discussing an anchor investment of up to $10 billion, which illustrates that logic.
The clearest warning sign concerns performance. IPOs priced in 2026 are on average up just 2% as of September 30, against 12% for the S&P 500. Of the 452 IPOs tracked since 2021, only 22% beat the market six months after listing. Elice’s KOSDAQ debut on October 20 saw the stock fall 32% on its first day, Firmus withdrew its offering two weeks before listing after weak institutional demand, and Oura postponed its own. CoreWeave, listed in March 2025, is down 57% over one year.
Control structure beyond the norm
Anthropic is a Delaware public benefit corporation, which requires it to balance shareholder interests with the public interest in its mission. The governance architecture set out in the S-1 has few equivalents on the market.
- A single Class F share, held by a company owned by the seven co-founders, carries 50.1% of the voting power.
- A Class T is administered by a Long-Term Benefit Trust made up of trustees with no financial stake, experts in AI safety, national security or public policy. The trust elects and removes the directors of that class, who will form the board majority.
- A Class E is reserved for employees, and a non-voting Class N is intended for strategic partners.
Anthropic is legally classified as a controlled company under Nasdaq governance rules. The board includes Reed Hastings, Christopher Liddell, Vas Narasimhan and Yasmin Razavi. Simultaneous public offers are also planned in Australia, Canada, several countries of the European Economic Area, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, without listing in those markets.
The real issue is not size, it is the bill
The filing does not quantify every commitment, but it details the largest compute contracts, which carry minimum payment clauses payable whether or not the capacity is used. According to sums added up by StockTitan from pages 171 and 172 of the prospectus, minimums owed to Amazon and Google over the life of the contracts exceed $224.5 billion, and $269.4 billion including Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal, for its part, cites an overall commitment that could reach $750 billion over the coming years.
Against this bill, cash remains solid at $131.7 billion as of September 30, 2026. Net revenue retention is around 900%. More than 11,900 customers exceed $100,000 in annualized revenue, close to 1,900 exceed $1 million and about 250 pass $10 million. Concentration remains high: the five largest customers account for roughly 25% of revenue over the first nine months of 2026, although 79% of third-quarter revenue came from customers outside that group, up from 64% a quarter earlier.
The S-1 also acknowledges that sufficiently advanced AI systems could pose catastrophic or existential risks, and that the insurance it holds may not cover such a scenario. The timetable calls for a book-building opening in mid-November, pricing and a first trading day in the following weeks, after the U.S. midterm elections.
“The headline number, the exit valuation, does not yet exist.”
Editorial analysis, based on the public filing
Conclusion: an open window, with guarantees required
OpenAI, Anthropic’s direct rival, has postponed its IPO to 2027 in order to preserve a valuation of at least $1 trillion, and is preparing a $30 billion round at about $1.4 trillion. Anthropic is leading a race in which the first mover sets the reference for everyone else.
In a base case, the offering follows the S-1 timetable, with a price set according to institutional demand. In a cautious case, the market demands a discount and the listing slips into 2027. In a stress case, compute commitments weigh on the path to profitability and on the share price after listing. The capital markets have opened a very large window for AI, but they now demand guarantees. The largest IPO in history will be judged less on the size of the cheque than on what remains of the company when the first bills come due.
Sources
- Anthropic, S-1 registration statement filed with the SEC (EDGAR, reference 0001628280-26-067168), October 26, 2026
- StockTitan, tally of contractual minimums based on pages 171 and 172 of the prospectus
- Reuters, reported offering size of $100 billion
- Wall Street Journal, reported overall commitment of up to $750 billion
Cet article est publié à titre informatif et éducatif. Il ne constitue en aucun cas un conseil en investissement. Faites vos propres recherches (DYOR) avant toute décision.
