The AI pioneer Anthropic is reaching for the crown: With a targeted record valuation, it could overtake arch-rival OpenAI when it goes public.
• Battle of the AI titans: Can Anthropic outpace OpenAI in its IPO?
• New round of financing could ensure record valuation
• Joint venture: AI solutions for private equity companies
IPO rumors: IPO already in October?
The US AI specialist Anthropic, developer of the chatbot Claude, is aiming to go public as early as October 2026. As insiders report to Bloomberg, the company is preparing its IPO in direct competition with OpenAI, with well-known Wall Street institutions such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley being discussed to support the stock market debut.
Thanks to prominent support from strategic partners such as NVIDIA, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft, who provide Anthropic not only with capital but also with essential hardware, a record valuation is expected.
Targeting record valuation of $900 billion
The AI startup is seeking a massive new round of funding that would value the company at around $900 billion, according to recent reports from Investing.com. If these early-stage talks are successful, Anthropic would overtake its main rival OpenAI – which was last valued at $852 billion at the end of March – in terms of value. This planned capital jump is significant as it would more than double the company’s valuation compared to the last financing round in February, which raised $30 billion based on a $380 billion valuation.
The company recently launched its most powerful freely available model, Claude Opus 4.7. At the same time, the specialized Claude Mythos Preview model is causing a stir: it has advanced cybersecurity functions and is currently only available to an exclusive circle of companies.
The enormous interest in Mythos is also evident at the political and economic levels, where the model has already been the subject of meetings between Trump administration officials, technology CEOs and bank executives, Investing.com continued. Since the operation of such highly complex models requires enormous computing capacity, the billions in financing sought are primarily used to acquire the necessary infrastructure to further expand the technological leadership in the AI sector.
$1.5 billion joint venture
According to a Wall Street Journal report obtained by Reuters, AI start-up Anthropic is also close to completing a landmark joint venture worth around $1.5 billion. Together with heavyweights in the financial world such as Blackstone and Goldman Sachs as well as other Wall Street firms, specialized AI solutions will be developed and sold for companies owned by private equity companies in the future.
In addition to Anthropic itself, the driving forces behind the deal are the investment companies Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman, which, according to insiders, each want to invest around $300 million in the project. Goldman Sachs is expected to join as a founding investor with a sum of around $150 million. While negotiations are well advanced, according to people familiar with the matter, official confirmation from the parties involved to news agencies such as Reuters is currently pending.
Evelyn Schmal, editorial team at finanzen.net
