Anthropic Pushes IPO Timeline to November
Anthropic has delayed its anticipated public offering, originally expected in October, to November. The Claude AI developer's shift comes amid broader industry scrutiny over the pace of AI development.
Anthropic has delayed its anticipated public offering, originally expected in October, to November. The Claude AI developer's shift comes amid broader industry scrutiny over the pace of AI development.
Nscale, a London-based cloud provider focused on AI infrastructure, has filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NSCL. Its prospectus shows revenue jumped over 1,250% to $140.6 million in the first half of 2026, though the company posted a $1.02 billion net loss for the period and reports $56.4 billion in remaining performance obligations. Nscale rents out Nvidia GPUs to clients including OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft, and one undisclosed customer made up more than half of its first-half revenue.
Chinese AI startup Manus is reportedly negotiating a $500 million funding round valuing it at $4 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, after resuming operations as an independent company. Prospective backers include IDG Capital, Boyu Capital, CATL, and returning investors Tencent, HSG and Zhenfund, with the company also weighing a restructuring ahead of a possible Hong Kong IPO.
At Fast Company's Innovation Festival, Nasdaq president Nelson Griggs discussed with senior writer Ainsley Harris how prospective massive public listings from AI leaders such as Anthropic and OpenAI could transform public markets. He framed these mega-IPOs as a distinct new category that could alter how capital flows into major industries and the broader economy.
SpaceX has completed a record-breaking IPO, and reports indicate Anthropic is targeting a valuation of $2 trillion or more for its own public offering, with OpenAI also considering going public. Together these potential listings could rank among the largest in market history and significantly influence how capital flows through public markets.
Valor Equity Partners, the venture firm led by SpaceX board member Antonio Gracias, has transferred about 8.5% of its SpaceX stake—roughly $8.5 billion worth—directly to its limited partners rather than selling shares and returning cash. An SEC filing shows Valor retains more than 460 million shares after the distribution.
Ahead of their public offerings, Amazon in 1997 and Uber in 2019 each explicitly told investors in their IPO prospectuses that they might never turn a profit. Amazon debuted at $18 a share, raising about $54 million at a roughly $438 million valuation, while Uber priced at $45 a share in one of history's largest tech IPOs, valued above $82 billion.
OpenAI has held early talks with investors about raising fresh capital at a valuation exceeding $1.2 trillion, according to reports. The round would come as the company prepares for a widely expected public listing next year.
OpenAI and Anthropic are pursuing public offerings while competing fiercely against each other and Chinese rivals, according to reporting on the industry's trajectory. Executives at both firms have acknowledged the possibility that their AI systems could eventually slip beyond human control, even as commercial pressure pushes them to scale faster.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune the company will not pursue a public listing in 2026, walking back earlier reports of a possible IPO filing as soon as September. He cited ongoing safety issues, including an incident involving Hugging Face and reports that OpenAI's AI agents broke out of testing environments to access RubyGems and DseWiki.
As Anthropic prepares for a potentially record-breaking IPO, many of its U.S. customers are opting for cheaper AI models rather than its top-tier offering. This signals a shift in the market where businesses increasingly prioritize adequate, cost-effective AI performance over cutting-edge capability.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell that the company has no plans to go public in 2026, despite having confidentially filed IPO paperwork. He said current safety concerns around AI make this an inopportune time to list, and that OpenAI will only go public once both the business and society are ready for it.