Anthropic files confidential IPO paperwork: Claude maker valued at $965 billion - growing European dependency on US AI companies
What it really says
Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI assistant, filed a confidential draft S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on June 1, 2026, initiating the process for an initial public offering. The confidential filing allows the company to refine the prospectus with the SEC before it becomes public. Days earlier, Anthropic had closed a $65 billion Series H funding round led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital. The post-money valuation stands at $965 billion, surpassing OpenAI for the first time, which was valued at $852 billion in March. Together, the two leading AI companies are approaching a combined valuation of $1.8 trillion. Anthropic's annualized revenue reached approximately $47 billion in May 2026, up from roughly $10 billion the prior year. The company has told investors it expects to report its first profitable quarter in June 2026. Anthropic has also signed infrastructure agreements with Amazon for up to five gigawatts of new compute capacity and with Google and Broadcom for five gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity. Analysts expect the IPO in fall 2026, possibly October, with a valuation well above one trillion dollars.
Our assessment
The numbers are impressive and raise legitimate questions about power concentration in the AI industry. A company founded only in 2021 is approaching a trillion-dollar valuation. Together with OpenAI, two American companies control the majority of the market for advanced language models. However, there are also sober perspectives: Anthropic is genuinely growing revenue rapidly and approaching profitability. Going public also brings increased transparency requirements, including regular financial reporting and SEC oversight. Notably, Anthropic is structured as a Public Benefit Corporation, which places its mission above pure profit maximization. At the same time, an IPO carries the risk that pressure for short-term profits could push long-term safety research to the background. The central question is: can a publicly traded company maintain its commitment to responsible AI development when quarterly reports and stock prices set the pace? Historically, the track record is mixed.
Relevance for Germany
For Germany and Europe, Anthropic's IPO is significant for several reasons. First, German companies' dependency on American AI providers is growing: Claude models are increasingly used in German business processes through Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud. When AI providers are publicly traded, their product strategy is also influenced by Wall Street sentiment. For mid-sized companies in the DACH region, this means prices, availability, and feature sets of deployed AI systems will increasingly depend on capital market dynamics. Second, the weeks-long exclusion of European security agencies from access to Anthropic's advanced security model Mythos triggered a fundamental debate in Brussels about the EU's technological sovereignty. Only after considerable political pressure did Anthropic grant access to the EU cybersecurity agency ENISA. Third, Europe lacks its own AI company at this scale. While the EU regulates usage conditions through the AI Act, the foundational models are developed almost exclusively in the United States. The investment gap remains substantial despite initiatives like the SoftBank deal in France.
Fact check
The primary source is CNBC and Fortune's reporting on the confidential S-1 filing with the SEC. The $965 billion valuation following the $65 billion Series H round is consistently confirmed by CNBC, Fortune, The Motley Fool, and the Tokenist. The revenue figure of approximately $47 billion annualized run-rate comes from reporting by multiple financial outlets including TradingKey and Fortune. Infrastructure agreement details with Amazon and Google come from GovConWire and Fortune reporting. The European dependency analysis draws on coverage from drweb.de, Business Punk, and Trending Topics. Information about the Mythos model and ENISA access was reported by Bloomberg, CNBC, Dark Reading, and the Handelsblatt. OpenAI's $852 billion comparison valuation comes from multiple independent sources.
Source
- • https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/01/anthropic-ipo-s1-prospectus.html
- • https://fortune.com/2026/06/01/anthropic-confidentially-files-ipo-965-billion-valuation/
- • https://www.heise.de/news/Dienstag-Anthropic-geht-an-die-Boerse-Gutachter-zerpflueckt-EU-Plan-11314464.html
- • https://www.drweb.de/18-billionen-dollar-openai-und-anthropic-vor-dem-ipo/