Latest / Best of: Features / Anthropic files for potentially the biggest IPO ever as CEO warns of risk to humanity from AI

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Anthropic files for potentially the biggest IPO ever as CEO warns of risk to humanity from AI · Best of: Features

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  Anthropic filed for potentially the biggest IPO even as CEO warns of
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  risk to humanity.
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  From Written by Barbara Orte and Bernard Condon. This article is being
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  read by an automated voice generated by Everlet. San Francisco, the AP,
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  artificial intelligence giant Anthropic, filed paperwork Monday for what would be the
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  biggest initial public offering of stock ever, even as its top executive
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  warns that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. The
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  filing sets up the San Francisco Company for a Wall Street debut
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  next month, potentially eclipsing the record eighty six billion dollars raised by
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  SpaceX in its initial public offering in June. An anthropic IPO would
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  also put the company ahead of open AI in going public, setting
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  the stage for a pair of blockbuster stock debuts by rival AI
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  developers. An IPO could give anthropic enormous resources to accelerate its expansion.
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  The amount the company ultimately raises remains uncertain, as do its final
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  valuation and offering price. But even at lower estimates, it would turn
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  the five-year-old startup into one of the world's most valuable companies, potentially
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  adding billions of dollars to the fortunes of CEO Dario Amode and
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  his sister and co founder Daniela. The three hundred thirty five page
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  filing showed Anthropics revenue is growing rapidly, reaching more than sixteen billion
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  dollars in the first half of the year, fourteen times its revenue
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  from the same period last year. But like many other tech companies
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  going public, the company behind the Claude Chatbot has yet to turn
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  a
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  profit. Despite the losses, Anthropic, valued earlier this year at nine hundred
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  sixty five billion dollars by private investors, is reportedly set to see
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  that value rise to one point five trillion dollars, or possibly two
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  trillion dollars, although its final valuation has not been established. At one
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  point five trillion dollars, Anthropic would rank among the world's most valuable
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  public companies, alongside Tesla. As for money raised, the offering could bring
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  in as much as one hundred billion dollars, according to reports, surpassing
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  the record set by SpaceX. In a regulatory filing, Anthropic said it
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  will list its stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the
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  ticker symbol ANT. A Wall Street debut is planned in a jittery
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  market. In the fueling the company said it could use some of
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  that money on acquiring other businesses and technology, as well as investing
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  in infrastructure, to grow its business to take on rivals. Formed in
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  2021 by former OpenAI leaders, Anthropic is locked in a fight for
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  dominance with that company. But the have plenty of other competitors, including
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  Google, newer startups in the US and China, and SpaceX, which has
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  an AI business. Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX's AI division have all been
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  losing move money than the make because of they huge cost of
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  resources in building AI, fueling concerns of a bubble. The need for
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  cash may explain why Anthropic is rushing to tap public markets this
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  year, and not waiting until next year, as is OpenAI's plan, adding
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  to the pressure as the possibility demand for AI shares could drop,
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  or even collapse. Investors have become jittery about the massive financing needs
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  of the sector, and several tech companies have pulled IPO plans recently.
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  David Shu, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said he
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  sees the filing more as a move to diversify the company's financial
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  base. Obviously they feel great, or at least good enough, on the
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  safety aspects relative to OpenAI, and so that puts the in a
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  position to really stay on track now to go public first, Heshu
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  said. In addition to helping plug any cash shortfall, the IPO will
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  shower extraordinary wealth on Anthropic's seven founders, including Amode and his sister.
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  The filing didn't directly state their ownership stakes, but other figures disclosed
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  suggest each will end up with one point four percent of the
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  company, a windfall of as much as twenty eight billion dollars a
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  person should the company go public at the top expected value. Risks
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  a plenty but a big payoff to the founders. Dario, forty three
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  and thirty nine year old Daniela, who is Anthropic's president, are already
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  worth fifteen point five billion dollars each, according to Forbes, which ranks
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  them as the one hundred seventy sixth and one hundred seventy seventh
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  richest in the world. Anthropic reported a net loss of eighty point
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  seven billion dollars in the first half of twenty twenty six, although
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  that includes a one time seventy two point four billion dollars charge
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  for an accounting adjustment related to financing agreements, according to the filing.
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  In the same period a year ago, Anthropic lost thirteen billion dollars.
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  The document includes some unusual provisions, including granting those Tu and
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  their five other co founders fifty point one percent of shareholder votes
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  through a special class of shares. Anthropic also has appointed independent financially
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  disinterested members of a so called long term benefit trust holding power
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  to appoint directors that is designed to ensure the company doesn't put
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  financial interests ahead of public safety. Another unusual feature of the filing
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  is its long list of risk factors, a required disclosure for every
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  public company, but in this case one that runs nearly one hundred
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  pages and makes for riveting reading. Among the risks are the quotidian,
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  the possibility it won't be able to retain key staff or navigate
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  regulatory roadblocks, and the horrific. The latter includes the prospect of malicious
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  actors using AI models to build chemical weapons, authoritarian rulers turning to
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  the technology to crack down on their citizens, and the possibility that
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  its AI models could go rogue and pose catastrophic or existential risks
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  to humanity. Calls for an AI slowdown, Anthropic and other leading companies
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  have touted the technology's potential to cure diseases and speed economic growth,
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  but it also threatens major disruptions to jobs by reducing the need
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  for human labor. A string of hacking incidents by Rogue A agents
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  also has raised fears the technology will slip free of human control
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  to carry out harmful, life threatening tasks. In September, Amade said the
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  AI industry should slow its fast moving development to give safety measures
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  time to catch up. Without such a slowdown, Amadei warned AI could
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  be capable of letting loose a swarm of agents that could take
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  over the entire internet within six to twelve months. He offered a
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  plan in a post on his website to increase checks on the
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  industry, noting that Anthropic is already undertaking part of this on its
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  own. As for other steps, though, he said that would require coordination
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  across the industry, and with governments around the world, including authoritarian ones.
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  Clashes with the U.S. Government Anthropic has tried to set itself apart
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  from other AI companies as the good guys, focusing on safety and
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  responsible development, as opposed to growing at all costs. Some of this
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  sentiment stems from the company's dispute with the US government, which broke
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  out in February when the Trump administration accused Anthropic of endangering national
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  security and designated the company a supply chain risk. Anthropic sued the
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  Pentagon in March for what it called an unlawful campaign of retaliation,
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  over its refusal to allow unrestricted military use of its technology. The
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  legal challenge intensified a dispute over how AI can be used in
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  warfare and mass surveillance. Chat GPT maker OpenAI made its own deal
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  to work with the Pentagon hours after the government punished Anthropic for
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  its stance. Anthropic also filed a separate and narrower case involving a
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  different rule the Pentagon is using to try to declare Anthropic a
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  supply chain risk. A California judge ruled in Anthropic's favor in the
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  first case, and a Washington, D C judge sided with the government
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  in the second. Both sides are appealing the decisions. Bernard Condon reported
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  from New York. Associated Press Writer Caitlin Huamani contributed from Los Angeles.