President Lee Jae-myung shakes hands with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei before their meeting at a hotel in San Francisco, U.S., on the 23rd of last month (local time). Cheong Wa Dae Press Corps
Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company, is pursuing an initial public offering that targets a valuation of up to $2 trillion (about 2,780 trillion won), according to reports. If completed, it would be the largest listing on record.
The New York Times reported on the 21st, citing sources, that Anthropic’s underwriters have recently been in talks with potential investors about raising more than $100 billion (about 139 trillion won) through the IPO. The valuation being discussed reaches as high as $2 trillion.
The current IPO record belongs to Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX, which listed in June. SpaceX was valued at $1.77 trillion (about 2,457 trillion won) at the time of its listing and raised $85.7 billion (about 119 trillion won). If Anthropic lists as currently envisioned, it could break both records for valuation and amount raised.
Anthropic’s valuation has climbed sharply in recent months. In a private funding round this year, it was valued at $900 billion (about 1,250 trillion won). The rise is supported by explosive revenue growth. Its annualized revenue — based on last month’s monthly revenue converted to an annual basis — is said to have surpassed $65 billion (about 90 trillion won). That represents a more than sevenfold increase in just seven months from $9 billion (about 12.5 trillion won) at the end of last year. Actual revenue in the second quarter of this year reportedly reached $11.6 billion (about 16.1 trillion won).
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and others, all former OpenAI employees. For a time it was seen as a latecomer trailing OpenAI, but its revenue growth accelerated as its coding AI program, Claude Code, gained popularity among developers.
The company has told investors that it can maintain its current high service prices even if competitors cut theirs, on the expectation that improvements in AI model performance will continue.
Still, whether Anthropic can maintain high service prices is seen as a challenge, as the rapid spread of relatively inexpensive open-weight AI models intensifies price competition. Whether it can secure a stable supply of data centers, advanced semiconductors and power to handle surging AI demand is also a variable.
Anthropic is expected to release its IPO prospectus within weeks and pursue a listing within months.