Amazon's Stake in Anthropic Could Be Worth Over $200 Billion if the AI Startup's Reported IPO Valuation Holds. Should Amazon Investors Care?

Anthropic, one of the world's fastest-growing AI companies, plans to go public in October. It was valued at $965 billion after its latest funding round in May, and it's reportedly targeting an IPO valuation of at least $1 trillion.

That means Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) 21% stake in Anthropic, which was built up with an $8 billion investment in 2024 and a $5 billion investment earlier this year, could be worth more than $210 billion when that IPO finally happens. What would that mean for Amazon's investors?

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Would Anthropic's IPO boost Amazon's stock?

Amazon has already recorded massive unrealized gains from its investment in Anthropic. In the second quarter of 2026, its net income surged 245% year over year from $18.2 billion to $62.6 billion. Most of that gain came from its investment in Anthropic, which boosted its "other" net income from $1.1 billion to $53.4 billion. That was two-thirds of the quarter's pre-tax income.

Amazon's own numbers already value Anthropic at its last known valuation of $965 billion. Therefore, a market debut at $1 trillion wouldn't instantly boost its net income -- since those gains have already been recorded incrementally under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in its statements. In other words, those massive gains have already been priced into Amazon's stock. But Amazon's stock could also slump if Anthropic's IPO flops.

Yet Anthropic's annualized revenue reached $9 billion at the end of 2025 and soared to $47 billion in mid-May. It claims its operating profit will turn positive for the first time in the second quarter of 2026, driven by robust enterprise demand for its Claude AI models. At $1 trillion, it would be valued at 21 times its trailing annualized revenue (as of May). Many growth-oriented investors could consider that a fair valuation for a hyper-growth AI stock. Those clear catalysts could attract more investors to its IPO and drive its valuation even higher.

Anthropic is also required to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud infrastructure provider and spend billions on Amazon's custom Trainium AI chips. So while Anthropic's expansion will be capital-intensive, a lot of that cash will flow back to Amazon. That's great news for Amazon, since it generates most of its operating profits from AWS.

Should Amazon's investors care about Anthropic?

Anthropic's rapid growth and upcoming IPO will be major catalysts for Amazon's stock. Its expansion directly supports AWS' growth, and a successful market debut would directly boost Amazon's net income. Amazon could also eventually sell some of those shares to fund its own infrastructure investments, buybacks, or future dividends.

Leo Sun has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.