Anthropic, now atop the AI bubble, files for its IPO
The Register
Anthropic just filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC, quietly kicking off IPO prep. It's now valued higher than OpenAI, so this could be the first real peek at whether AI money is actually real.
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Anthropic didn't just edge past OpenAI on paper last week. It went ahead and filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC on Monday, putting itself on a path to going public before its biggest rival even gets close. The timing isn't subtle. Days earlier, Anthropic closed a $65 billion Series H round that pushed its post-money valuation to $965 billion, blowing past OpenAI's reported $852 billion mark, which had briefly held the title of highest valuation ever for a private tech company. Filing now, while it's on top, looks like a calculated move to lock in the crown before Sam Altman's crew has a chance to reclaim it.
The filing itself is thin on details, as confidential S-1s tend to be. Anthropic isn't saying how many shares it plans to offer or what price it's eyeing, and the company declined to answer questions beyond its press release. That's standard practice at this stage, but it also means the public won't get a real look at the numbers until the SEC finishes its review and the filing becomes public. Given how opaque AI companies have been about their finances, that eventual reveal could matter more than the IPO itself.
Anthropic's rise owes a lot to Claude Code, which has done more for its reputation than almost anything else the company has shipped. Despite having a much smaller user base than OpenAI, Anthropic reportedly pulls in more revenue, a detail that's fueled the narrative that it builds more useful, less flashy products. But that reputation for utility doesn't automatically translate into financial health. The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources inside the company, that Anthropic may be nearing its first quarter of operating profit. As a private company, though, Anthropic has no obligation to disclose real numbers, and
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Every AI lab claims to be near profitability right before a funding round or IPO filing, and I've stopped taking that phrase at face value until it comes with an actual audited balance sheet. Anthropic beating OpenAI to the public markets is a genuinely interesting flex, but if this filing exposes SpaceX-style losses stacked under a trillion-dollar valuation, don't be shocked when the whole AI investment story gets a lot less romantic overnight. I'd rather see ten smaller, transparent labs than two secretive giants racing to see who can inflate a number first.
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