Anthropic filed the public version of its Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday 26 October 2026, according to NPR. That is the step that turns a confidential IPO plan into a document anyone can read. Reuters says the company will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker "ANT" after the IPO closes. These are the numbers and terms that reporting from Reuters, NPR and TechCrunch attributes to the filing.
From confidential draft to public filing
Anthropic announced on 1 June 2026 that it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the SEC. It said the number of shares and the price had not yet been set, and that the proposed offering depended on market conditions and other factors.
On 26 October, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Anthropic planned to file publicly that Monday at around 9 a.m. in New York. Bloomberg also said the company was set to begin formally marketing the offering as soon as the week of 9 November. NPR reported that the IPO could happen as soon as November. Reuters said the company is expected to go public before Thanksgiving.
NPR reported that the prospectus did not say how many shares Anthropic will offer or at what price range.
The numbers: a big loss, mostly on paper
Reuters reported that Anthropic's net loss for the first half of 2026 widened sharply to $80.7bn, "largely due to a non-operating item related to bonds convertible into the company's shares". NPR put the loss at nearly $81bn for January to June, up from $13bn in the same six months of 2025.
The same reporting shows a company that is growing fast:
- Revenue: NPR reported that first-half revenue rose 1,300% to $16.3bn. Reuters said revenue grew 1,368% in the three months ended 30 June compared with a year earlier.
- Operating loss: Reuters reported that the operating loss for the half narrowed to $693m.
- Adjusted operating income: Reuters put it at a positive $1.62bn, against a loss of $1.85bn a year earlier. NPR described the swing as from a loss of $1.8bn to $1.6bn of adjusted operating income, a measure it called an indicator of potential profitability.
TechCrunch sets out the accounting in more detail. It reported that Anthropic's income statement carries a line called "change in fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities, and SAFEs", which totalled $72.4bn for the first half of 2026. TechCrunch said the charge is non-cash, "meaning no money left the company". It arises because the shares the convertible notes will convert into have become far more valuable as Anthropic's valuation has risen.
Reuters also reported that Anthropic warned in the prospectus that its revenue growth rate could decline and fluctuate from time to time.
Who stands to gain: Amazon's convertible notes
TechCrunch's reading of the S-1 ties that $72.4bn charge to the soaring value of Amazon's convertible notes. It reported that Amazon holds convertible notes with $6.2bn of principal outstanding as of 30 June, which TechCrunch says is Anthropic's entire debt load. Amazon's own filings valued those notes at $97.9bn as of that date.
TechCrunch reported that the notes could convert into as many as 1.84 billion shares. A cap limits Amazon to 12% of Anthropic's "partially diluted" share count, though Amazon can waive it. TechCrunch also reported that none of the venture firms it named, including Menlo Ventures, Sequoia, Sound Ventures and Spark Capital, owns 5% or more of the company, the threshold for the principal stockholders' table.
The valuation question
Anthropic's last private round, in May, valued it at $965bn post-money, NPR reported; Reuters also put that round's valuation at $965bn. The filing sets no valuation for the IPO. The figures in circulation come from elsewhere:
- NPR reported that earlier reports had said the IPO could value the company at between $1.5tn and $2tn.
- Reuters reported that some current and prospective investors were valuing Anthropic at about $1.5tn, down from roughly $2tn a week earlier, after the company disclosed some financial details at a recent investor event.
NPR compared the possible size with SpaceX, which it said was valued at around $1.8tn when it listed in June. Reuters said SpaceX priced a $75bn offering that valued it at $1.75tn.
Banks, board and control
Reuters reported that Goldman Sachs secured the lead-left role on the IPO, working alongside Morgan Stanley, which is also a lead underwriter and will act as stabilisation agent. Twenty other banks were named as underwriters, Reuters said.
On governance, Reuters reported that Anthropic named Reed Hastings, the Netflix co-founder, as lead independent director. In line with Nasdaq rules, the company identified itself as a "controlled company" because its Long-Term Benefit Trust has the power to elect a majority of its board.
Compute costs and the risks Anthropic lists
Reuters reported that Anthropic expects compute and infrastructure expenses to rise in absolute dollars and to remain its largest operating expense. It also reported that the company has committed more than $600bn to computing deals with partners including Amazon and Google.
Reuters reported that the prospectus warns advanced systems could produce outputs that "could be interpreted as coercive, deceptive, or manipulative", including behaviour resembling blackmail. It also quoted the prospectus as saying:
"Our increasing use of AI systems to accelerate our own research and development may cause the capabilities of our models to advance more rapidly than our ability to develop, validate, and implement corresponding safety, alignment, and security measures."
NPR reported that the filing also flags the risk of political backlash over the company's views on policy and regulation. NPR separately noted Anthropic's dispute with the Pentagon, which it said designated Anthropic a "supply chain risk". It said Anthropic has sued the Pentagon in two federal district courts and that those legal battles remain ongoing.
What the market is saying
The filing lands in a nervy market. Matt Kennedy of Renaissance Capital, an IPO research firm, told Reuters: "Anthropic is entering an IPO market that is far more challenging than the summer. Investors were not questioning valuations the same way a few months ago." NPR quoted Raj Joshi of Moody's calling the swing in adjusted operating income from negative to positive "a strong positive for the AI ecosystem".
My own view is that the $80.7bn loss should not be read as a measure of cash burn. The filing, as reported, says most of it is a revaluation of instruments tied to the company's own rising valuation. The number worth watching is the compute bill. The more than $600bn Anthropic has committed to computing deals, as Reuters describes it, is a commitment to future spending rather than an accounting revaluation.
Sources
Anthropic (2026) 'Anthropic confidentially submits draft S-1 to the SEC', Anthropic, 1 June 2026, available at: https://www.anthropic.com/news/confidential-draft-s1-sec (Accessed: 28 October 2026).
Ludlow, E. (2026) 'Anthropic Is Said to Plan Public Filing for Mega-IPO Monday', Bloomberg, 26 October 2026, available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-26/anthropic-is-said-to-plan-public-filing-for-mega-ipo-monday (Accessed: 28 October 2026).
Ruwitch, J. (2026) 'AI giant Anthropic files for an IPO that could break records', NPR, 26 October 2026, available at: https://www.npr.org/2026/10/26/nx-s1-6014772/anthropic-ai-ipo-could-break-records (Accessed: 28 October 2026).
Saini, M. and Wang, E. (2026) 'Anthropic's soaring sales, steep losses put AI frenzy to IPO test', Reuters, 26 October 2026, available at: https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/anthropic-opens-books-ais-explosive-growth-staggering-costs-2026-10-26/ (Accessed: 28 October 2026).
Temkin, M. (2026) 'VCs will make billions on Anthropic's IPO, but Amazon is set to make much (much) more', TechCrunch, 27 October 2026, available at: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/27/vcs-will-make-billions-on-anthropics-ipo-but-amazon-is-set-to-make-much-much-more/ (Accessed: 28 October 2026).
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