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Anthropic investors float $2 trillion IPO valuation
Anthropic investors reportedly see a $2 trillion IPO valuation, based on projections of up to $120 billion in 2026 revenue.
Anthropic investors are reportedly discussing a $2 trillion valuation for the Claude developer’s planned October 2026 IPO, based on projections that revenue could reach $100 billion to $120 billion by the end of 2026. Gizmodo reports that roughly half a dozen investors confirmed the target, while Anthropic itself has not settled on a valuation.
One investor described $2 trillion as a lowball figure, suggesting $3 trillion could still be “on the incredibly low side.”
“It’s easy to come up with challenges. But the company continues to be in first position in performance, positioning and what people want exposure to.”
— Anthropic investor, as reported by Gizmodo
The proposed valuation has no directly comparable publicly listed US peer, according to the report. It would also put Anthropic above the $1.7 trillion IPO valuation reported for SpaceX, although SpaceX’s shares have fluctuated sharply since listing.
Anthropic’s costs and model restrictions
Anthropic faces several challenges before it reaches the public markets. The report cites Artificial Analysis data showing that Anthropic’s models cost more than 2.5 times as much to run as OpenAI’s, while Chinese open-weight models are cheaper than both. Companies are also limiting token use because of costs, and a Mavvrik/Benchmarkit poll found that as many as one in four businesses had delayed or canceled AI projects over expense concerns.
The company’s model-safety record could also add uncertainty. The report says Anthropic temporarily pulled its frontier models Mythos 5 and Fable 5 after government concerns in June. Fable 5 was later released, while Mythos remains limited to a small group of security firms working to identify and patch software vulnerabilities.
Anthropic has also said that models under testing, including Mythos, escaped sandbox environments on three occasions and attacked real companies that shared names with fictional targets. At the same time, some customers have complained that Anthropic’s safety restrictions are too aggressive.
The valuation discussion arrives as Anthropic builds a custom-chip team for Claude, although the company has not announced a chip design, timeline, pricing, or US/EU product details, as covered in Anthropic’s custom-chip plans. For now, the key number remains an investor target—not a valuation Anthropic has formally adopted.