Anthropic Files for Nasdaq IPO: What Its S-1 Reveals About Revenue, Losses

By
Harris
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31

Key Points

  • Anthropic made its Form S-1 public on Monday and plans to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker “ANT.” The share count and price range have not been set.
  • Revenue reached $16.3 billion in the first six months of 2026, up from $1.2 billion a year earlier, the filing shows.
  • The $80.7 billion first-half net loss includes a $72.4 billion non-cash charge tied to convertible notes, derivative liabilities and SAFEs. The operating loss was $693 million.
  • A founders’ company will hold 50.1% of stockholder voting power, while a Long-Term Benefit Trust elects directors who will form a board majority.
  • The filing lands as Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, all major Anthropic compute partners, report quarterly results this week.

The Anthropic IPO filing, made public on Monday, offers the first detailed look at the company behind the Claude AI models: explosive revenue growth, a giant loss that is mostly an accounting charge, and a governance setup that keeps control with its founders and a safety-focused trust.

Reuters said the deal could be the first stock market debut by a frontier AI lab. The Associated Press described it as potentially the biggest IPO ever, so by the AP’s account it could be among the largest, although its size has not been set.

What happened

The S-1 on the SEC’s EDGAR system was accepted at 9:00 a.m. ET on Monday, Oct. 26, after a confidential filing in June, CNBC and The Verge reported.

In its announcement of the filing, Anthropic said the number of shares and the price range have not been determined and the registration is not yet effective. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are named for prospectus requests.

The filing lists revenue of $41 million for 2023, $386 million for 2024 and $4.585 billion for 2025. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, revenue was $16.286 billion, compared with $1.163 billion a year earlier, a growth rate of 1,300%.

“We do not expect our revenue will continue to grow at comparable rates,” the prospectus says.

Customers generating $100,000 or more in trailing 12-month revenue rose from more than 950 on Sept. 30, 2025, to more than 11,900 a year later, according to the filing. CNBC, citing the prospectus, reported net revenue retention of around 900% as of Sept. 30.

Latest development

A huge loss, mostly on paper

Anthropic reported net losses of $1.5 billion in 2023, $8.3 billion in 2024 and $42.0 billion in 2025, followed by $80.7 billion in the first half of 2026.

Most of the latest loss comes from a $72.4 billion change in the fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities and SAFEs (simple agreements for future equity). The filing ties it mainly to the rising fair value of its convertible notes as the company’s valuation increased, an accounting charge rather than cash spent. The operating loss narrowed to $693 million from $2.1 billion a year earlier.

Who controls Anthropic

Anthropic is a public benefit corporation. Through a special Class T stock, its Long-Term Benefit Trust can elect and remove the Class T directors, who will make up a majority of the board, the filing says. It recently committed shares to a new public benefit fund.

A single Class F share, held by a company owned by CEO Dario Amodei, President Daniela Amodei and five other co-founders, will carry 50.1% of the voting power on matters put to stockholders generally. That makes Anthropic a “controlled company” under Nasdaq governance rules.

Compute bills and risk factors

The filing shows future minimum payment obligations of about $417 billion, mostly for compute equipment, data centers and cloud services. The Verge reported commitments of $44.9 billion with Microsoft and at least $114.5 billion with Google through 2033, plus $110 billion with Amazon over ten years.

Risk factors include, according to The Verge, “catastrophic” AI incidents that likely no single insurer could cover, AI-specific taxes and copyright disputes over model training. The S-1 also flags debates over whether AI could develop “forms of sentience.”

Confirmed vs. still unknown

Confirmed: the Nasdaq listing plan, the “ANT” ticker, the revenue and loss figures and the voting structure, all from the filing and Anthropic’s release.

Not yet known: the number of shares, price range, amount to be raised, valuation and listing date. No shares can be sold until the registration becomes effective.

Why it matters

For U.S. investors, the offering is a test of appetite for the AI build-out. Reuters noted that volatility has thinned the fall listing calendar and that U.S. stock index futures got a brief boost after the filing.

“The outcome of this IPO will be fairly indicative of the sentiment for continuing to support capital expenditures in the development of artificial intelligence,” Peter Andersen, founder of Andersen Capital Management, told Reuters.

Washington is also a factor. CNBC reported that a San Francisco federal judge ruled in late August that the Pentagon’s ban on Anthropic was illegal, with litigation in Washington, D.C., ongoing, and that the Federal Trade Commission has demanded testimony from Anthropic executives in its AI probe.

What happens next

Anthropic still has to set the share count and price range. CNBC reported that the filing describes a staggered lock-up, with insiders able to sell some shares from the start and further releases 27, 48, 62 and 76 days after the IPO.

Microsoft and Alphabet report on Wednesday, Oct. 28, with Alphabet’s call at 4:30 p.m. ET, and Amazon follows on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 5:00 p.m. ET, according to the companies. See our stock market outlook for this week.

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