The AI company Anthropic, which is the fiercest rival of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, is heading for the stock market.
An application for a share placement was initially submitted confidentially, as Anthropic announced. This means that business information initially remains under lock and key while the documents are examined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The IPO could be one of the three largest this year. The AI company recently closed a $65 billion financing round at a total valuation of $900 billion. OpenAI is also said to have stock market ambitions that could be of similar dimensions. Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX, which has now also incorporated his AI company xAI, could go public as early as mid-June. According to media reports, the aim is for a total valuation of up to $1.8 trillion. With expected proceeds of up to $80 billion, it would be by far the largest IPO.
ChatGPT makers: No race to the stock market
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said after the Anthropic announcement that his company does not see itself in the race to see who will be listed first. “We will do it if we think it makes sense,” he emphasized in an interview on CNBC. A few months ago, the website “The Information” reported that OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar did not think the company was yet ready for an IPO. At the time, OpenAI denied that there were differences in management on the issue.
At the same time, there are still doubts as to whether the investments of hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure for artificial intelligence can ultimately be earned back. Altman told CNBC that he believes it will be easier to see in a year or two that the high expenses are paying off.
SAN FRANCISCO (dpa-AFX)