OpenAI and Anthropic Take Different Paths to the Public Market

Competing AI startups OpenAI and Anthropic filed to go public last quarter, but the companies have chosen different strategies for their IPOs. The Anthropic IPO is expected to take place as early as September or October this year, while OpenAI, judging by recent comments from management, would prefer to postpone its IPO until 2027. For OpenAI, this may be a rational decision. With a current valuation of $852 billion, the company needs to demonstrate sufficiently strong financial performance to justify such a high valuation to public-market investors.

According to OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, the company expects to go public in 2027, although it could do so earlier if market conditions are favorable. At the same time, she emphasized that an IPO is not an end in itself, but simply another way to raise capital. In March, OpenAI already secured $122 billion in funding, meaning the company currently has no immediate need to tap public markets.

OpenAI's financial performance continues to improve rapidly. Since the beginning of the current quarter, the company's revenue has grown by 35%, while sales in its enterprise business have increased by 50%. In the second quarter, total revenue reached $6.7 billion, up 18% from the previous quarter, and the company’s annualized revenue run rate recently exceeded $40 billion. Tools for professional software developers and AI agents already attract about 20 million weekly active users.

However, this is where the challenge posed by OpenAI's valuation emerges. Its closest competitor, Anthropic, is growing even faster. By the end of July, the company's annualized revenue run rate had reached $65 billion, up from $47 billion in May. For comparison, the figure was only about $9 billion at the end of 2025. In other words, Anthropic’s annualized revenue has increased severalfold in just a few months.

Such rapid growth has allowed Anthropic to aim for one of the largest IPOs in technology history. According to available estimates, the company's valuation at the time of the offering could reach $2 trillion. The basis for such a high valuation is a forecast that Anthropic's revenue could reach $190-200 billion by 2028. In the second quarter of this year, the company expects to generate about $10.9 billion in revenue, roughly twice the first-quarter figure.

Anthropic is preparing not only for an IPO but also to preserve founder control after going public. Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei, who holds less than a 2% economic stake, could receive a special class of shares with enhanced voting rights. This structure would give management greater protection from shareholder pressure after the IPO. A similar arrangement already allows Mark Zuckerberg to control about 60% of Meta's voting power despite holding a significantly smaller share of its economic stake.

At the same time, Anthropic is expanding its credit facilities ahead of the IPO. The company intends to increase its revolving credit line, which was initially set at $10 billion. Last year, the startup already secured $2.5 billion in revolving credit, but the rapid expansion of its business and rising spending on computing infrastructure are driving it to increase its access to debt financing. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan are expected to participate in preparations for the IPO.

The situation is somewhat different for OpenAI. The company already has a huge amount of capital at its disposal and can afford to wait and see what valuation Anthropic achieves in the public market. A later IPO would also give OpenAI more time to build a financial track record and demonstrate the sustainability of its growth, which could ultimately support OpenAI stock performance once the company goes public.

Thus, competition between the two largest AI startups is gradually moving beyond model capabilities and access to computing power. The companies are now also seeking to win the confidence of public-market investors. Anthropic is betting on turning its rapid revenue growth into a high valuation as quickly as possible, while OpenAI prefers to strengthen its financial foundation first. At a time when AI companies are already being valued at hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars, convincing investors that future revenue forecasts are realistic is becoming almost as important as technological superiority.