Anthropic Starts IPO Process Before OpenAI

Anthropic, the developer of the Claude artificial intelligence model, has moved ahead of OpenAI in starting the process for a US listing after securing a higher valuation.

Anthropic said June 1 that it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.

The company said completing the SEC review would give it the option to decide whether to proceed with the listing. Any offering will depend on market conditions and other factors. The number of shares to be sold and the offering price have not yet been determined.

Last month, Anthropic raised $6.5 billion in new funding, valuing the company at $96.5 billion. That exceeds OpenAI's $85.2 billion valuation from March.

OpenAI is also preparing documents, including a prospectus, for submission to securities regulators, but appears not to have filed them yet.

Both companies are aiming to go public this year and are competing to reach the IPO market first. Cerebras has already been pursuing a listing, while Elon Musk's space company SpaceX is also preparing a blockbuster offering. Getting ahead in the IPO queue could give them an advantage in raising capital.

Gil Luria, an analyst at investment bank D.A. Davidson, told Reuters that OpenAI and Anthropic are racing to go public before they run out of capital.

He added that Anthropic has another reason to enter the public market before OpenAI: it could set the financial reporting standard for cutting-edge AI models. That could help shape those standards in its favor.

Go Jeong-sam, Hankyung.com reporter jsk@hankyung.com