Sept. 4 — Anthropic’s push toward what could become one of the largest stock market debuts in history is running behind schedule, with sources telling Reuters the AI company’s IPO launch has shifted toward mid-October, later than the imminent filing many had expected.
The company had been on track to file its IPO prospectus as early as next week, but that filing has now slipped to late September, with the marketing roadshow pushed to mid-October at the earliest and a stock market listing targeted just before November’s U.S. midterm elections. Reuters noted such slippage is not unusual, as companies routinely adjust IPO timelines around market conditions and regulatory reviews.
The stakes riding on the offering are enormous. Investors have floated a valuation as high as $2 trillion, a figure that would rank the listing among the largest ever attempted, on par with or exceeding Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which went public in June at a $1.77 trillion valuation. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citi are the banks leading the offering.
Alongside the IPO push, Anthropic is finalising a $15 billion revolving credit facility, according to sources. Both Anthropic and the banks involved declined to comment on the IPO plans. The delay also comes as rival OpenAI is reported to be weighing its own public offering around a similar window, setting up a potential clash of the two AI leaders for investor attention this autumn.