Anthropic Prepares $2 Trillion IPO as OpenAI Delays Listing

AI laboratories Anthropic and OpenAI are pursuing divergent financial paths while publicly advocating for a slowdown in AI development due to safety risks. Anthropic has filed confidential paperwork for an initial public offering as early as October 2026, potentially seeking a $2 trillion valuation and raising up to $100 billion. The company is projected to exceed $100 billion in annualized revenue this year, driven by business adoption of its Claude software.

In contrast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has delayed the company's IPO until 2027, citing safety concerns. Despite this delay, OpenAI is seeking a funding round at a valuation of at least $1.2 trillion. Financial disclosures indicate OpenAI faces significant headwinds, forecasting a cash burn of approximately $280 billion through 2030 to fund computing infrastructure, with expectations to exhaust $122 billion in raised capital by 2028.

These financial moves have sparked criticism and public unrest. Investor Michael Burry argued that safety warnings from these firms are self-serving ploys to maintain high valuations and hinder open-source competition. On September 17, protesters marched through San Francisco to the headquarters of both companies, demanding an end to the AI race and a global safety treaty. This coincided with the Dreamforce conference, where leaders from both firms spoke about pacing the AI frontier. Internal tensions also surfaced as former employee Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic, warning that the industry is gambling with human lives.