(SeaPRwire) –
By: Christian Pierce
Anthropic just became the hottest story on Wall Street. A $2 trillion IPO valuation. $47 billion in annualized revenue. Three of the largest investment banks in the world lining up for what could be the biggest public offering since the pandemic era. The AI IPO cycle, which many observers thought was running on fumes, just got a second wind that nobody saw coming.
Q2 2026 revenue landed at over $11.5 billion. That is a 14-fold increase from the $787 million reported in the same quarter last year. It also more than doubled Q1’s $4.73 billion. Operating profit hit $559 million for the first time. The annualized run rate crossed $47 billion in May, officially edging out OpenAI’s $40 billion, though the two companies may be calculating differently. Management is projecting $190 to $200 billion in revenue by 2028. The math is aggressive but internally consistent.
The IPO process is already underway. Confidential filing is done. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan are working the deal. A fall debut is on the table. That timing is deliberate. Anthropic wants to hit the market before rivals OpenAI and DeepSeek can make their moves. This year’s IPO books already show $256.4 billion raised, the strongest pace since 2021. Comparison companies like Palantir, SpaceX, and Cloudflare are trading at multiples between 41.6 and 53 times expected revenue. The valuation framework is being built around forward projections, not current reality.
One investor, David Merkel of Aleph Investments, called the $2 trillion figure possible but questioned whether it would hold over time. That is the honest question hanging over this entire deal. Investors are betting that revenue scales faster than costs as GPU spending, model training expenses, and hiring plateau as a share of the top line. Whether that thesis survives a public market that punishes missed expectations remains entirely unwritten.
Author bio: Christian Pierce is a chief financial columnist and markets commentator who has spent over two decades covering public offerings, corporate earnings, and the intersection of technology and capital markets.