Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude model family, is preparing for a public listing that could reach a $2 trillion valuation, potentially eclipsing SpaceX’s record $86.2 billion IPO from June. The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives including CEO Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei, projects $65 billion in annual revenue and may pitch investors on a total addressable market worth more than $30 trillion. Anthropic was valued just under $1 trillion after a $65 billion capital raise in May.
Despite those figures, Anthropic reportedly lost nearly $42 billion in 2025 and expects to remain unprofitable for years as it funds computing infrastructure for frontier AI models. With a workforce of around 5,000 people, the company is asking job candidates how they would feel if its AI safety mission were abandoned and the stock dropped to zero, according to Axios. Amodei has warned that severe AI-driven wealth concentration could “break society” and has pledged to give away 80% of his wealth alongside other co-founders.
Anthropic also faces legal friction with the Trump administration after the government canceled contracts and labeled the company a supply chain risk in March. The dispute followed Anthropic’s refusal to grant the military unrestricted access to its AI models.
OpenAI, meanwhile, is facing its own pre-IPO scrutiny. At least 14 executives have departed in 2026, spanning operations, revenue, product, marketing, and safety. The latest reported exit was Chris Malone, who managed OpenAI’s data centers and played a key role in the Stargate Project, the $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative backed by SoftBank, Oracle, MGX, Microsoft, and Nvidia. OpenAI said it reorganized its infrastructure department to support scale, but investor concerns about valuation and profitability have pushed its expected IPO into 2027.
Other departures include chief revenue officer Denise Dresser, former COO Brad Lightcap, product and business head Fidji Simo, chief marketing officer Kate Rouch, and head of ethics Chloé Bakalar. OpenAI also dismantled its preparedness team focused on catastrophic model risks. President Greg Brockman has framed the changes as a strategic reset, saying the company’s visibility means “every departure gets scrutinized in a way that it doesn’t otherwise.” Ramp’s August index showed 39.7% of US businesses paid for OpenAI, slightly behind Anthropic’s 43.5%, while Bank of America extended OpenAI a $520 million credit line.
