Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot, is reportedly set to expand its syndicate of lead underwriters for its anticipated initial public offering by including Citigroup Inc. This move would place Citigroup alongside Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., who were previously tapped to lead the IPO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is also involved in the deal.
The addition of Citigroup comes as Anthropic prepares for a mega-listing, with the company eyeing an IPO as early as October. This move underscores the significant interest and scale of the upcoming offering, which is expected to be one of the largest technology IPOs in history. Anthropic is in a race with rival OpenAI to be the first AI company to go public.
Anthropic's financial performance has been robust, with annualized revenue exceeding $65 billion by the end of July, a more than sevenfold increase from its pace at the end of the previous year. The company's recent private valuation reached $965 billion, surpassing OpenAI's $852 billion valuation. Anthropic has also been actively shoring up its finances, with its revolving credit facility expected to exceed its approximately $10 billion target, a common step for companies preparing for a public debut.
The IPO will be a major test for Anthropic, which has raised $65 billion in private capital and is spending a substantial $1.25 billion per month on computing capacity from SpaceX. The company’s CFO, Krishna Rao, has been leading early investor meetings, focusing on its Claude AI models, enterprise market position, and management, without discussing specific financials or valuation targets, though some investors anticipate a valuation of $2 trillion or more.
