Anthropic has pushed back the launch of what could be the largest stock-market debut in history. Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported on Friday that the AI company now expects to begin marketing its IPO to investors in mid-October at the earliest — several weeks later than previously planned. The listing would then take place just days before the US midterm elections on November 3.
The reason for the delay is financial plumbing rather than market nerves. Anthropic is trying to finalize a $15 billion revolving credit facility — a standing line of credit that would reassure public investors the company will not need to raise fresh capital immediately after listing. Banks' analysts typically meet the company only once that facility is in place, and firms usually leave several weeks between those analyst meetings and the publication of a prospectus. Two of Reuters' sources said the prospectus, which bankers had penciled in for as early as this coming week, will now probably appear in late September, with the investor roadshow following in October. The plans, the sources cautioned, could still change; Anthropic declined to comment.
The stakes are enormous. SpaceX's June IPO — which raised about $86 billion, the most ever in a listing, at a valuation of roughly $1.8 trillion — is the current record holder, and its market value has since hovered near $2 trillion after briefly topping $2.4 trillion. Anthropic has signaled it wants to beat it: recent reports put its potential raise at up to $100 billion and its target valuation around $2 trillion. The company filed confidentially with the SEC in June, when valuations were discussed at about $965 billion; by mid-July its shares were changing hands on secondary markets at $1.2 trillion on paper, and by mid-August the figure in circulation had reached roughly $2 trillion — without a single share trading publicly.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are leading the offering, with JPMorgan and Citigroup added to the syndicate — the first time all four have appeared on the same account. Underlying the hype is a fast-growing business: reports put Anthropic's quarterly revenue above $11.5 billion in August, up more than fourteenfold year on year. None of those figures has been audited publicly, so the prospectus will be the first regulator-vetted look at the company's finances.
The new calendar also places the would-be record listing in an unusual political window: pricing the world's largest AI company during the closing weeks of a campaign in which artificial intelligence itself has become a campaign issue. None of the people involved has said the election influenced the timing, Reuters notes, and IPO calendars shift constantly. But as the company's own filing is expected to acknowledge, the timing debate is now part of the record-breaking ambition itself.
