Anthropic, the developer behind the Claude AI assistant and one of the fastest-growing companies in generative AI, has begun early preparations for a potential initial public offering (IPO) as early as 2026. According to the Financial Times, a successful listing could position Anthropic ahead of OpenAI in the race to go public—particularly amid growing concerns about an "AI bubble."

This move positions the San Francisco-based startup to potentially become one of the decade’s largest tech IPOs, setting up a direct showdown with its chief rival OpenAI, which is also weighing its own path to the public markets. Anthropic has already engaged Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the law firm closely associated with landmark Silicon Valley listings, to assist with the early stages of its IPO planning.

This development comes as investor demand for the company surges. The Financial Times reports that Anthropic is currently raising a new private funding round that could push its valuation beyond $300 billion. The round includes major commitments from Microsoft and NVIDIA, with combined investments expected to exceed $15 billion. The company’s valuation has more than doubled in just a few months, driven by rapid enterprise adoption of Claude, the swift expansion of its developer tools business, and a lucrative compute procurement agreement with Microsoft. As part of this deepening partnership, Anthropic has pledged to spend tens of billions of dollars on Azure capacity over the coming years—a bet that anticipated demand will justify massive infrastructure expenditures.

Earlier this week, the company also completed its first acquisition: Bun, a developer tools firm. A 2026 IPO would give Anthropic a chance to beat OpenAI to Wall Street. While OpenAI—the maker of ChatGPT—is also exploring a public listing, its CFO recently stated the company isn’t targeting a near-term debut. Internal discussions at OpenAI reportedly center around a potential $1 trillion valuation, though timing remains uncertain.

For Anthropic, an early IPO offers clear strategic advantages. First, it would cement the company’s status as a leading public player during a period of intense competition and rapid evolution in generative AI. By accessing public markets sooner, Anthropic can secure a more stable and diversified capital base. This financial strength would enable significant investments in infrastructure, research, talent acquisition, and further strategic acquisitions—accelerating innovation and allowing it to scale more aggressively than privately held rivals reliant primarily on venture capital. Internally, Anthropic anticipates a substantial surge in commercial demand. Earlier this year, the company projected its annualized revenue run rate could double or even triple, reaching approximately $26 billion by next year.

This momentum coincides with Anthropic overtaking OpenAI in enterprise AI adoption, capturing a 32% usage share compared to OpenAI’s 25% and Google’s 20%. This shift is largely attributed to Claude’s dominance in coding (with a 42% share) and enterprises’ preference for closed models that meet stringent compliance requirements. The reversal stems from the success of Claude 3.5 Sonnet and the 3.7 releases, which have attracted coding-focused and compliance-sensitive business customers, while OpenAI remains heavily oriented toward consumer-facing interactions—processing over 2.5 billion daily prompts. Anthropic expects to achieve profitability by 2028, ahead of OpenAI, thanks to its booming developer tools and API revenue, which could double OpenAI’s income as early as 2025, along with strategic acquisitions like Bun.