Anthropic Could Raise Up to $100 Billion in Its November IPO

Anthropic could soon provide a demonstration of how much capital public markets are willing to invest in artificial intelligence (AI). The company is discussing an initial public offering (IPO) that could raise up to $100 billion at roughly a $2 trillion valuation, with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) considering investing as much as $10 billion. The terms of the IPO remain under discussion and could change. But at this point, it doesn't look like it will happen before the U.S. midterm elections in November.

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A $100 billion stock sale would be about 16% more than the roughly $86.25 billion in gross proceeds booked by Space Exploration Technologies' (NASDAQ: SPCX) IPO in June. Here's why Anthropic may need to raise so much capital.

A $100 billion raise is still smaller compared to Anthropic's commitments

According to Reuters, Anthropic has lined up at least $518 billion of AI infrastructure commitments over roughly the next decade. Commitments tied to hyperscalers Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft total about $252.5 billion and include minimum spending requirements even if Anthropic uses less capacity. Another $161.2 billion relates to Broadcom-linked equipment leases that Anthropic has limited ability to cancel.

These commitments total up to roughly $413.7 billion. Hence, even a $100 billion IPO would cover only about 24% of this mostly fixed portion of Anthropic's planned compute spending.

Anthropic does not appear to need the IPO simply to cover current losses. The company reported a net loss of about $42 billion in 2025, but roughly $34 billion of that was attributed to accounting charges tied to financing instruments. The company's operating loss was much lower at about $8 billion. Anthropic has also reported positive adjusted operating income in the second quarter of 2026, based on preliminary figures shared with prospective investors.

Anthropic's costs may be harder to cut

The bigger risk for Anthropic is that customer spending patterns could change much faster than many of its infrastructure costs. Around 82.6% of its 2025 revenue came from usage-based spending, while just two clients accounted for 24% of its total revenue. Many of its large customers are also not locked into long-term commitments.

At the same time, roughly 80% of Anthropic's $518 billion infrastructure plan is tied to commitments that are effectively fixed, either because the commitments are non-cancelable or require payment regardless of usage. So customers have the option to cut Claude usage relatively quickly, while Anthropic may have far less flexibility to reduce its future compute bills.

Anthropic's proposed IPO valuation assumes strong growth. The company's revenue was about $4.6 billion in 2025, but its annualized revenue run rate had already climbed above $65 billion by July 2026. At a $2 trillion valuation, Anthropic would be valued at roughly 31 times its July annualized revenue run rate.

Anthropic will still depend heavily on a few big tech players

Going public could give Anthropic more financial flexibility, but it would not reduce its dependence on its technology partners. Amazon and Google accounted for 47% of Anthropic's 2025 sales through their cloud marketplaces. Both companies are also major investors in Anthropic, supply it with computing capacity, and compete with it in AI. Investors who are considering adding Anthropic to their portfolios once its shares start trading on the public market should weigh these risks before making a decision.

Manali Pradhan, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Broadcom, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.