Exclusive-Anthropic’s IPO prospectus shows sweeping AI vision, surging costs

Anthropic, a five-year-old AI startup, is set to make an IPO bid that could value it at more than $2 trillion, according to its prospectus. The company reported a staggering net loss of $42 billion in 2025, with plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing, and infrastructure needs in the coming year. While the IPO would capitalize on the rapid rise of AI, it does so with the knowledge that the technology can sometimes behave unpredictably and potentially harmfully.

Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, has called for the AI community to slow down the release of new capabilities to address these concerns. The company has expanded rapidly, with revenue growing 12-fold to nearly $4.6 billion, while also losing over $8 billion on an operating basis. Last year, Anthropic's compute and infrastructure costs surged threefold, accounting for over half of its total operating expenses.

The IPO is expected to be delayed until after the November US midterm elections. Despite the ambitious growth projections, AI and chip stocks have recently sold off, raising questions about whether investor enthusiasm can withstand greater scrutiny.