Anthropic IPO Filing Splits Investors as Company Pledges 5% of Shares to Public Benefit Fund

One day after Anthropic made its S-1 public on Monday, Oct. 26, investors are still sharply divided on whether the company is worth the $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion valuation it is reportedly seeking. The filing also carries a governance wrinkle: Anthropic plans to commit 5% of its shares to a new Public Benefit Fund, and the idea is already drawing criticism from prominent figures on the right.

Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in May. The reported IPO range would put it among the 10 most valuable U.S. tech companies. It plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. The company has not set a price, and no shares have traded.

The numbers both camps are using

The bulls point to 1,300% annual sales growth, 900% net revenue retention and an implied 85% gross margin. Revenue was $41 million in 2023, $386 million in 2024 and $4.585 billion in 2025, then $16.286 billion in the first six months of 2026 alone.

Anthropic also told investors its third-quarter revenue reached $16.8 billion. That figure is the company's own and has not been independently verified.

The customer base is heavily enterprise. As of Sept. 30, Anthropic reported more than 14,000 enterprise customers. Of those, more than 11,900 spend at least $100,000 a year, more than 1,900 spend $1 million or more, and about 250 spend $10 million or more.

The bears point to a net loss of $80.7 billion in the first half of 2026, against $12.9 billion in the same stretch of 2025. Most of the 2026 loss came from changes in the fair value of convertible notes and derivative liabilities, per the filing. The prospectus also lists hundreds of billions of dollars in compute commitments and more than 90 pages of risk factors. Five customers accounted for about a quarter of revenue in the first nine months of 2026.

The company says it had raised $141.1 billion as of the end of June.

Investors on both sides

Denny Fish, a portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors, called it "a generational moment" on CNBC's "The Exchange" on Monday. He added that "the devil comes down to the details, and we still don't have all the details yet."

Erica Brescia, a managing director at Redpoint Ventures, said it is "incredibly impressive" to see Anthropic doing this well so early. She called the IPO an opportunity for retail investors to participate in AI "outside of buying chip stocks." Redpoint is an Anthropic investor.

David Trainer, CEO of New Constructs, takes the opposite view. He called the planned offering "a huge Wall Street grift" and said Tuesday that reading the prospectus did not change his mind. His objections: Anthropic's competitive position against lower-cost open-weight models, an insider selling timetable he finds opaque, and commitments and liabilities that far exceed cash. He also argues that existing investors want a chance to sell. New Constructs called it the "most ridiculous IPO of 2026" in a report last month.

No charges, investigations or regulatory actions have been reported. Trainer's characterization is his opinion, not a finding.

The backdrop is rising interest rates and growing concern about the size of the AI buildout. Anthropic would be the first pure-play AI model developer to test public markets.

The Public Benefit Fund

Anthropic says it plans to commit 5% of its shares to a Public Benefit Fund. The move needs stockholder approval before it takes effect.

The fund could grow. Anthropic's board may add two percentage points for every 50% increase in the company's value above a baseline the company has not disclosed. That is at the board's discretion, and Anthropic has not said how high the fund's share could climb.

The fund will be a wholly owned LLC, not a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Anthropic said equity held by the LLC will not go toward lobbying or political donations, in the U.S. or abroad. Money could go to nonprofit donations, direct distributions, or programs on how AI affects workers. The company says it will share more on structure, governance and valuation triggers in the coming months.

Critics came quickly. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey called it "USAID 2.0" on social media, arguing that Anthropic's founders, who are advocates of Effective Altruism, put a non-Western audience ahead of Americans. David Sacks, the former Trump AI czar, questioned what public good the share allocation would actually deliver. Elon Musk wrote on X that he recommends "giving the shares directly to the public."

Lise Buyer, a partner at IPO advisory firm Class V Group, told CNBC the timing helps Anthropic's image ahead of the offering. She said it is also meant "to burnish their reputation at a time when AI is coming under significant scrutiny." Anthropic has not publicly responded to Luckey, Sacks or Musk.

What comes next

Anthropic still has to run a roadshow, gauge demand, set a price and allocate shares. The IPO could happen as soon as November.

The open items are concrete. Stockholders must vote on the Public Benefit Fund. The company has promised governance details in the coming months. And the price will show whether buyers side with Fish and Brescia or with Trainer.