Anthropic has proposed a dual-class share structure
Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind Claude, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, taking a major step towards what could become one of the biggest stock market listings in history.The company said it had submitted a registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed offering of its Class A common stock.Anthropic plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “ANT”. The company has not yet determined the number of shares it will offer or the price range for the IPO. The proposed listing, which could take place as early as next month, will test investor appetite for artificial intelligence companies amid growing scrutiny of the sector's spending, profitability and long-term growth prospects.Valued at $965 billion after its May 2026 funding round, Anthropic has emerged as one of the biggest players in the global AI industry.
Who will lead the IPO, and how will shares be structured
Anthropic has appointed a group of major investment banks to underwrite the proposed offering. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Securities and Citigroup are among the underwriters, alongside RBC Capital Markets, UBS Securities, BMO Capital Markets and BNP Paribas.The filing outlines a share structure that distinguishes between voting and non-voting stock.
Each share of Class A common stock will carry one vote, while Class N common stock will have no voting rights. The company said its Class N shareholders are primarily strategic business partners.Anthropic also plans to issue a single share of Class F common stock to a limited liability company established by its co-founders, known as Founder LLC. The filing further states that the Class A common stock will not be convertible.Chief executive Dario Amodei holds 240.6 million Class A shares before the offering, with the total rising to 245.3 million when shares subject to voting proxies are included.The company has also contributed 846,840,960 shares of Class N common stock to Anthropic Public Benefit Fund LLC, reflecting its public-benefit structure.
A public-benefit company with an mission
Anthropic operates as a public benefit corporation, the statement said with a legal structure that requires its management to balance financial performance with broader public interests.
The company said it intends to direct a meaningful portion of its resources towards ensuring that frontier AI is safe and that its benefits are widely distributed.The structure sets Anthropic apart from a conventional profit-focused company, particularly as it prepares to answer to public-market investors. Its commitment to AI safety will be closely watched alongside its commercial performance, given wider concerns about the risks posed by increasingly capable AI systems.Anthropic also said it does not expect to pay dividends in the foreseeable future, signalling that it intends to retain resources for its business and future investments.
Revenue growth, legal costs and the wider AI market
Anthropic's filing comes as investors weigh the company's rapid expansion against the substantial costs and risks associated with developing advanced AI systems.The company recorded a $1.5 billion charge in the three months ended September 30, 2025, to settle the Bartz litigation, a copyright dispute brought by authors who alleged that their books had been used without permission to train Claude.
The settlement highlights the legal liabilities that can accompany the development of generative AI models.The IPO is also expected to provide a clearer picture of the economics underpinning the AI boom. Anthropic and rival OpenAI sit at the centre of a network of chipmakers, cloud providers, data-centre operators and other businesses that have invested heavily in anticipation of sustained demand for AI services.