Anthropic has entered the IPO chat.
One of the hottest AI startups in the world is taking its talents to the public markets. Anthropic announced it confidentially filed its S-1 draft with regulators, setting the stage for an IPO as early as this fall.
The news comes after Anthropic’s massive $65 billion funding round, valuing it at $965 billion. It also follows reports about Anthropic’s biggest rival, OpenAI, racing to go public.
Although OpenAI hasn’t officially filed its IPO paperwork yet, it could still beat Anthropic to the public market. If not, a later IPO also comes with benefits. More on that race here.
Both companies would almost certainly enter the public market with valuations above $1 trillion. And don’t forget fellow AI giant SpaceX, which already published its paperwork for what could be a record-breaking IPO.
BI’s Zak Jason previously wrote that AI reached a tipping point a few weeks ago, akin to the COVID shutdown moment in March 2020. Anthropic’s IPO filing drives that point home even more — and market leaders say a lot rides on the seismic event.
Meanwhile, AI’s go-public moment is coinciding with a noticeable change in tone.
Executives like OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei have gone from AI doomers to AI boomers, writes BI’s Amanda Hoover.
After spending a lot of time talking about the chaos AI will cause in the job market, AI gurus are backing off their apocalypse rhetoric. Now, it turns out, the tech is more friend than foe.
The shift isn’t happening in a vacuum. When AI mentions in commencement speeches draw automatic boos and the literal Pope is raising concerns, you probably realize the narrative needs a makeover.
So what’s the real story of AI’s impact? We’ll get a fuller picture in the coming weeks. The IPO process lays bare not only a company’s financials but also its perceived biggest risks.
Three companies likely worth more than $1 trillion going public in quick succession is bound to have a significant short-term impact on the market. A string of high-profile IPOs can be a warning sign for investors.
TS Lombard, the economics research and forecasting firm, said the IPO wave could signal that the top of the AI trade is near. The firm flagged how IPO booms often precede market pullbacks.
