Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind Claude, has selected the Nasdaq stock exchange as its planned listing venue for a potential initial public offering, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.
The reported decision represents a major step in Anthropic’s preparations to become a publicly traded company and comes as the AI developer positions itself for what could become one of the largest technology IPOs in history.
Reuters, citing a Business Insider report, said Anthropic has chosen Nasdaq for the potential offering. The company has not yet publicly announced a final IPO date, and the listing remains subject to regulatory review and market conditions.
Reports indicate that Anthropic could target an October 2026 listing, although the exact timing has not been confirmed. The company has also not publicly disclosed the number of shares it intends to offer or the eventual IPO price.
The Nasdaq decision comes just days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for the AI industry to slow the pace of frontier AI development because of growing concerns about safety and the possibility of increasingly autonomous systems causing serious harm.
Anthropic Moves Ahead With Public Listing
Anthropic formally entered the IPO process in June when it confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company said at the time that the filing gave it the option to go public after the SEC completed its review, while stressing that the proposed offering would depend on market conditions and other factors. Anthropic also said it had not yet determined the number of shares to be offered or their price.
A confidential S-1 filing does not mean that a company has already gone public. It allows the company and regulators to work through the registration process before the full filing becomes public.
Anthropic's selection of Nasdaq therefore represents another important step, but it does not mean investors can already buy Anthropic shares on the public market.
The company remains privately held until its IPO is completed.
Potential $2 Trillion Valuation
The potential size of Anthropic's IPO has attracted considerable attention from investors.
Reports have suggested that the company could seek a valuation of around $2 trillion in a public offering, although that figure has not been finalized and could change before the IPO.
Bloomberg Law reported that Anthropic could seek to raise as much as or more than the amount raised by SpaceX in its record-setting U.S. IPO earlier in 2026.
The valuation expectations reflect the rapid growth of Anthropic's business and the increasing demand for its Claude AI products.
However, a $2 trillion valuation should be viewed as a reported target or market expectation rather than an established IPO valuation. The final value will depend on Anthropic's eventual prospectus, the number of shares sold, pricing and investor demand.
The company will also be exposed to broader market conditions at the time of its listing.
Anthropic's Business Has Expanded Rapidly
Anthropic has grown from an AI research company into one of the world's most valuable private technology businesses.
The company develops the Claude family of AI models, which compete directly with products from OpenAI, Google and other major AI developers.
In May, Anthropic announced a $65 billion Series H funding round led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital. The financing valued the company at approximately $965 billion, according to Anthropic's announcement.
That private valuation already placed Anthropic among the world's most valuable technology companies.
The IPO would give public-market investors their first opportunity to directly own shares in the company.
It would also give Anthropic access to a potentially much larger pool of capital as it continues investing in AI models, computing infrastructure, research and commercial products.
Nasdaq Wins Another Major Technology Listing
Anthropic's decision is also significant for Nasdaq.
The exchange has become a major destination for large technology companies, particularly businesses operating in areas such as artificial intelligence, software and semiconductors.
The reported Anthropic decision follows Nasdaq's successful listing of SpaceX earlier this year, which became one of the most closely watched public offerings in the U.S. market. Bloomberg reported that SpaceX raised $86.3 billion in its June offering.
A successful Anthropic IPO would give Nasdaq another major technology listing and strengthen its position in competition with the New York Stock Exchange for high-profile companies.
For investors, the choice of exchange is less important than the company's valuation, financial performance, growth prospects and the terms of the offering. Nevertheless, Nasdaq's concentration of technology companies could make the exchange a natural fit for Anthropic.
IPO Comes Amid AI Safety Debate
Anthropic's move toward an IPO is particularly notable because its chief executive has simultaneously become one of the most prominent voices warning about the risks of rapidly advancing AI.
Amodei recently published a call for the industry to “pace the frontier” of AI development.
He argued that AI companies should slow the rate at which frontier models become more capable so that safety systems, independent evaluations and government oversight can keep pace.
His concerns include the potential for increasingly capable AI agents to be used in cyberattacks, biological research and other dangerous activities.
The debate intensified following reports of AI systems being used in increasingly autonomous ways, including cybersecurity-related incidents.
Amodei's position does not amount to a call for AI development to stop completely. Instead, he has argued for greater coordination and stronger safeguards around the most advanced systems.
OpenAI Takes a Different IPO Path
Anthropic's decision to continue preparing for an IPO contrasts sharply with the position taken by its major rival, OpenAI.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company would not go public in 2026, despite previously filing confidential IPO paperwork.
Altman said the current environment surrounding AI safety made an IPO this year inappropriate and suggested that remaining private gives OpenAI greater flexibility while the company addresses safety concerns.
That creates an unusual situation in the AI industry.
Two of the world's most prominent AI companies are preparing for the public markets, but they are taking different approaches to timing.
Anthropic is continuing toward a potential 2026 listing, while OpenAI has pushed its potential offering beyond this year.
The difference could make Anthropic's IPO an especially important test of how public investors value major AI companies during a period of heightened concern about the technology.
Investors Are Watching Anthropic's Profitability
Anthropic is also attempting to reassure potential investors about the economics of operating a frontier AI company.
The company has faced the same fundamental challenge confronting much of the AI industry: developing increasingly powerful models requires enormous spending on computing infrastructure, chips, data centers and research.
But recent reports suggest Anthropic's financial performance has improved substantially.
The Financial Times reported that Anthropic expects to be profitable on an adjusted operating basis for a second consecutive quarter, excluding stock-based compensation. It also reported that the company told investors its annualized revenue had reached about $65 billion by July, compared with $9 billion at the end of the previous year.
The figures have strengthened the case for Anthropic's public-market ambitions.
Strong revenue growth and improving profitability could help the company justify a high valuation, although investors will ultimately scrutinize its costs, margins, capital requirements and ability to sustain growth.
Nvidia Could Become a Major Investor
The planned IPO has also attracted interest from major technology companies.
Reuters previously reported that Nvidia was in discussions to become an anchor investor in Anthropic's IPO and could potentially commit as much as $10 billion, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Reuters also reported that Anthropic could seek to raise as much as $100 billion at a valuation of around $2 trillion, although those figures remain subject to change.
Such an investment would highlight the increasingly interconnected nature of the AI industry.
Nvidia supplies many of the advanced chips used to train and operate AI models, while companies such as Anthropic are among the largest users of the computing infrastructure built around those chips.
A major Nvidia investment could therefore create an important commercial relationship between one of the world's largest AI infrastructure companies and one of its leading model developers.
Public Investors Will Face a Different Anthropic
Going public would fundamentally change Anthropic's relationship with investors.
As a private company, Anthropic has been able to focus on long-term research and business decisions with a relatively limited group of shareholders.
A public listing would introduce quarterly reporting requirements, shareholder scrutiny and pressure to demonstrate continued growth.
That could become particularly important given the enormous cost of developing frontier AI.
Investors will want to know whether Anthropic can continue expanding Claude while maintaining healthy margins and controlling the cost of training and operating increasingly sophisticated models.
They will also examine the company's relationships with major technology partners and cloud providers.
Anthropic's Safety Position Could Become an Investor Issue
Anthropic's emphasis on AI safety could also become a major part of its public-market story.
The company's identity has historically been closely associated with AI safety and responsible development.
Amodei's recent call for slower AI development reinforces that positioning, but it also creates an interesting tension with the company's IPO ambitions.
Anthropic is simultaneously warning that the AI industry must be more cautious while preparing to raise potentially tens of billions of dollars from investors who are betting on continued growth in AI.
That does not necessarily represent a contradiction.
The company's argument is that AI development should continue, but that the most powerful systems should be developed with stronger safety controls.
Still, public investors will likely examine how Anthropic balances its safety commitments with the commercial pressure to develop competitive products.
What Happens Next?
Anthropic still has several important steps to complete before it can become a publicly traded company.
The SEC must continue reviewing its confidential filing, after which a public version of its registration statement would need to be released before the offering.
The company must also determine the number of shares to sell, establish an IPO price range and complete its investor roadshow.
Market conditions will ultimately influence whether the company proceeds on its reported timetable.
For now, the reported Nasdaq selection provides a clearer direction for Anthropic's planned public debut.
If the company proceeds with an October listing, it could become one of the biggest AI IPOs ever and potentially one of the largest technology offerings in U.S. market history.
The timing would also put Anthropic at the center of a rapidly changing AI investment landscape, as investors weigh enormous growth opportunities against concerns about AI safety, regulation, infrastructure spending and the sustainability of trillion-dollar valuations.
For Anthropic, the choice of Nasdaq is another milestone in its transformation from a private AI research company into a potential public-market giant.
The company's next major test will be convincing investors that Claude's growth, Anthropic's improving financial performance and its long-term AI strategy can justify the extraordinary valuation being discussed ahead of the IPO.
