Anthropic points to AI dangers, soaring sales in IPO filing
AFP, WASHINGTON, United States
Anthropic PBC, one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies, on Monday made public its plans to sell shares on the stock market, revealing soaring sales but also potentially dire safety risks in a major test of whether the AI boom can deliver profits.
Its filing warns investors of dangers ranging from its conflict with US President Donald Trump’s administration to AI systems acting on their own, alongside huge spending commitments on computing power.
A disappointing reception for Anthropic could dent investor enthusiasm for AI, a sector that has become a key driver of the US economy amid worries of a market bubble.
Anthropic PBC’s logo and stock graphs are pictured in this illustration taken on Monday.
Photo: Dado Ruvic, Reuters
According to The Wall Street Journal, the company is aiming to go public the week of Nov. 16, though the timing could change.
The offering could raise as much as US$100 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) that could value Anthropic at between US$1.5 trillion and US$2 trillion, the Wall Street Journal added, citing people familiar with the matter.
The 400-page prospectus devotes over 90 pages to risks specific to an industry that has faced a string of reports in recent months of AI systems behaving in unexpected and harmful ways.
It also reflects the dominant belief among researchers inside Anthropic that AI needs to be developed by a safe pair of hands, or otherwise see its extraordinary powers misused with China having the edge.
The filing cited concerns that advanced systems "could pose catastrophic or existential risks to society if not developed and deployed responsibly."
Anthropic also warned that its "engagement with policymakers and public positions on AI regulation and safety could subject us to heightened scrutiny, political backlash, or disproportionate regulatory action."
The company has been targeted in recent months by Trump’s administration for refusing to lift restrictions on how the Pentagon could use its technology, and the US Department of Defense has since labeled it a national security risk and barred it as a supplier.
Despite these challenges, Anthropic’s business has grown very quickly. Sales reached US$11.6 billion in the April-to-June quarter, up from US$787 million a year earlier. That compares with US$4.6 billion in sales for all of last year.
The company made its first operating profit in that quarter, close to US$1 billion. It still reported an overall loss of US$80 billion for the first half of the year, mostly because of accounting charges linked to its rising value rather than cash spent.
Much of the growth comes from businesses using Claude to write software and handle office work.
Nearly 12,000 organizations now spend at least US$100,000 a year with Anthropic, up from fewer than 1,000 a year ago.
Anthropic warned that its growth is likely to slow, possibly sharply, and investors will be closely looking at the company’s third-quarter figures that will be released before the IPO.
To power its AI, Anthropic has committed hundreds of billions of dollars to computing capacity, including up to US$120.5 billion with SpaceX, about US$110 billion with Amazon.com Inc and an estimated US$125 billion to US$150 billion with Google.
The company warned that if demand falls short of its projections, many of these payments must be made regardless of how much capacity it actually uses.
The company will have a governance structure that gives the power to the founders and not investors.
The company’s seven co-founders, led by chief executive Dario Amodei and his sister, president Daniela Amodei, will keep control of just over half of shareholder votes after the listing, meaning outside investors will not be able to outvote them.
Anthropic is registered as a "public benefit corporation," which requires it to weigh its goal of developing AI safely alongside making money for shareholders.
The co-founders have each pledged to give 80 percent of their shares to charity, though the filing notes these pledges are not legally binding.
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