Anthropic IPO valuation rests on up to $200 billion 2028 revenue target - Reuters

Anthropic, the AI developer, is projecting annual revenue of $190 billion to $200 billion by 2028, according to bankers and investors preparing for a potential initial public offering, Reuters reported on Friday. This forecast far exceeds the $47 billion revenue run rate Anthropic disclosed in May, showcasing the enormous growth expectations investors are applying to the company.

Valuation discussions are employing enterprise value-to-revenue multiples, projecting these figures two years into the future, a less common timeframe for fast-growing software firms without mature profit profiles. This extended outlook reflects Anthropic's rapid expansion and the challenges in valuing AI companies heavily investing in computing infrastructure, model development, and personnel.

Anthropic's revenue run rate grew from approximately $9 billion at the end of 2025 to over $47 billion by May. The company anticipates at least $10.9 billion in revenue for the second quarter and its first operating profit, $559 million, in the first quarter. Investors are banking on revenue growth to outpace the costs of GPUs, model training, and inference, enabling margins to expand as the company scales.

Companies like Cloudflare (NYSE:NET), Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR), and SpaceX are among the public firms being considered for valuation benchmarks prior to Anthropic's analyst day. Palantir trades at a valuation of 53 times its expected 2026 revenue, making it one of Wall Street's most expensive stocks. Cloudflare and SpaceX are valued at approximately 41.6 times forecasted 2026 revenue, providing varying comparisons from AI-driven software growth to infrastructure and future-scale businesses.

This valuation approach carries significant risk if Anthropic fails to meet its growth projections or if AI infrastructure costs remain high. David Merkel of Aleph Investments suggested the company could achieve a $2 trillion valuation, but questioned its long-term sustainability. Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment.