Anthropic pushes IPO marketing to mid-October, targeting $2 trillion valuation

Anthropic has pushed back the launch of its initial public offering to mid-October at the earliest, Reuters reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The company’s prospectus, which had been expected as early as the week of September 8, will now not be filed until late September at the soonest — a delay that could place the actual listing just days before the U.S. midterm elections in November.

The postponement affects what would be one of the largest technology IPOs on record. Some investors are targeting a valuation of up to $2 trillion for the San Francisco AI company, underpinned by Anthropic’s own projection of $190–$200 billion in revenue by 2028 — figures that would need to hold up to intense public-market scrutiny the moment the prospectus is filed.

From near-trillion to two-trillion in months

Anthropic’s last private funding round — a Series H in May 2026 — valued the company at $965 billion, a figure already reflecting the extraordinary pace of the AI investment cycle. The jump to a potential $2 trillion IPO valuation would represent roughly a doubling in just five months, driven by expectations that frontier AI model revenue will scale faster than any prior software category.

In parallel with its IPO preparations, Anthropic is finalizing a $15 billion revolving credit facility. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup are among the banks coordinating the offering.

Why the delay matters

The slip from early September to mid-October is more than a scheduling adjustment. Anthropic’s listing will serve as a real-time referendum on investor appetite for frontier AI companies at eye-watering valuations. A stumble in the public roadshow — or a broader market downturn in October — could force a significant price cut. Conversely, strong demand would validate the multi-trillion-dollar valuation theses that have defined private AI investing in 2025 and 2026.

Competitors including OpenAI (which launched GPT-6 Astra last week) and Google DeepMind will be watching closely. A successful Anthropic IPO would set a benchmark that could pull other AI labs toward the public markets sooner than planned.

The timeline remains subject to change, as reported by Reuters via The Star.