Anthropic's IPO Delayed to October as Investors Eye $2 Trillion AI Bet

Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, has pushed back its initial public offering (IPO)—the first time everyday investors can buy shares in the company. Instead of filing its paperwork this week, it now expects to file in late September and market the sale to investors in mid-October, just before U.S. midterm elections. The timeline could still change, and the company is also working on a $15 billion credit line to strengthen its finances.

Why does this matter to you? Because investors are talking about valuing Anthropic at almost $2 trillion. That would make it one of the largest IPOs ever, right up there with SpaceX's $1.77 trillion market debut. To justify that price, Anthropic is relying on massive future growth: insiders project revenue of roughly $190–200 billion by 2028. That is a bet on promises, not present profits—and it will test whether public markets still believe the AI boom is worth the hype.

The delay itself is probably not bad news. It gives Anthropic and the banks involved—Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citi—more time to align financing and paperwork before entering a market that will inspect every number closely. The more important moment will come when Anthropic releases its prospectus, the detailed financial document that tells investors exactly what the company is worth today and why it might be worth $2 trillion someday.

For ordinary people, this is a window into how much Wall Street thinks AI is really worth. If the IPO succeeds at that valuation, it may trigger more investment and competition among AI companies—potentially shaping the prices, features, and choices you get in tools like Claude. If it stumbles, it could force the whole industry to scale back expectations. In short, how much investors pay for a slice of Claude says a lot about how AI will evolve for all of us.