Andrew here. We’re taking a look at Anthropic’s latest steps toward an I.P.O. that appears set for this fall, Stripe’s takeover plan for PayPal, and BlackRock’s $15.3 trillion — with a “t” — in assets under management. More below.
The next big A.I. offering?
The race to be the next artificial intelligence giant to go public is on, and all signs point to the A.I. lab Anthropic.
It is reportedly taking the kinds of steps a company would if it were preparing for a potentially trillion-dollar I.P.O. in the fall. That timeline would put Anthropic ahead of rivals — but comes amid an uncertain outlook for the company.
What’s happening:
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Banks advising Anthropic are lining up meetings with potential investors in the coming weeks, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.
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Anthropic is in talks to arrange more credit lines from banks, many of which would become underwriters for its I.P.O., according to The Information. (The A.I. lab is already working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.)
All this suggests an I.P.O. in the fall is in the offing. Anthropic has already filed confidentially for an initial offering, and Bloomberg previously reported that the company might go public as soon as October.
That timeline would put Anthropic squarely ahead of OpenAI, which has also filed confidentially but is now looking at going public next year. And DeepSeek, one of its fast-growing Chinese rivals, is weighing an I.P.O. in China as soon as next year, according to Bloomberg.
Some in Silicon Valley have worried about falling behind in the I.P.O. race. Going later might mean ceding some investor capital to competitors that went public beforehand, the thinking goes.
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That said, business fundamentals often trump timing. Consider how Uber’s stock has vastly outperformed that of Lyft, its longtime rival, despite the company’s going public second.
Several significant questions hang over Anthropic. The company is still battling the Pentagon in court over its designation as a supply chain risk to national security.
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