Anthropic's IPO Marketing Slips to Mid-October as Citi Joins Underwriters and $15 Billion Credit Line Nears Close

Since Anthropic's $965 billion Series H valuation was disclosed earlier this year, the company has moved from quietly lining up bankers to actively negotiating financing terms for what could become the largest tech IPO in history. The newest wrinkle: the timeline just slipped.

According to Bloomberg reporting relayed by BigGo Finance, Anthropic now expects to start pitching the IPO to investors no earlier than mid-October, with the public prospectus landing in late September instead of "next week," as had been expected days earlier per a Financial Times report cited by LookOnChain. That earlier FT report had Anthropic listing in New York by late September or early October. The new timeline pushes the roadshow closer to, or possibly into, the run-up to November's midterm elections.

The Underwriter Lineup Keeps Growing

Morgan Stanley has emerged as the "left lead underwriter" handling strategic advisory work, with Goldman Sachs slated to serve as stabilization agent managing trading in the early post-listing period, according to the Financial Times report cited by LookOnChain. JPMorgan and Barclays are also expected to play significant roles.

Citigroup is now being added to that core group, according to a Bloomberg report cited by TradingKey published August 21. Citigroup already has skin in the game: the bank participated in a $2.5 billion revolving credit facility for Anthropic last year and rode SpaceX's record IPO to a stronger ranking in Wall Street's underwriting league tables this year, per TradingKey.

One notable mismatch in coverage: Crypto Briefing ran a headline claiming Anthropic "adds small firm to IPO underwriters alongside Wall Street giants," but the article's own body never names or discusses any small firm, only the familiar Wall Street names. The Motley Fool's coverage explains where that confusion likely originated. Robinhood Markets did land its first-ever underwriting assignment, but for fitness-ring maker Oura's IPO filing, not Anthropic's, according to The Motley Fool's own reporting. Robinhood was listed last among 17 underwriters on that deal, behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan. Anthropic's underwriting syndicate remains Wall Street's usual heavyweights.

The Credit Facility Behind the Scenes

Anthropic is also finalizing a $15 billion revolving credit facility, led by Morgan Stanley with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citi in key roles, according to BigGo Finance's sourcing. Barclays and Wells Fargo are expected to hold significant positions, while Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada and UBS round out the syndicate. Lead banks are being asked to commit roughly $1.25 billion each, with a middle tier near $1 billion and smaller participants closer to $750 million or less, per people familiar with the negotiations cited by BigGo Finance. That financing typically has to close before the formal underwriting roadshow begins.

A $2 Trillion Question

Investors are speculating the listing could target a valuation near $2 trillion, which would top SpaceX's reported $1.77 trillion IPO valuation, according to BigGo Finance. Anthropic is reportedly aiming to raise up to $100 billion in the offering itself, according to The Motley Fool, which would eclipse SpaceX's $86.7 billion raise and South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix's $26.5 billion raise earlier this year, the two largest IPOs on record before Anthropic.

The number drawing the most scrutiny is Anthropic's own revenue forecast. The company is reportedly telling bankers it expects 2028 revenue of $190 billion to $200 billion, up from a $47 billion run rate disclosed in May, according to BigGo Finance's sourcing on the Bloomberg report. That's roughly a fourfold jump in under three years for a company still burning cash on AI infrastructure and facing direct competition from OpenAI and Google.

Skeptics have a fair point here. A company projecting a quadrupling of revenue in under three years, while still privately held and having confidentially filed with the SEC, is asking investors to take an enormous leap of faith on numbers nobody outside the deal team can independently verify. Nothing in the public record confirms Anthropic will hit those targets, and the same AI capital-spending boom fueling the valuation has also been cited by analysts warning of an AI infrastructure bubble.

At the same time, Anthropic isn't a pre-revenue startup selling a story. It has actual paying enterprise customers and a documented run rate, which is more than most IPO candidates bring to the table. Whether $190 billion to $200 billion in 2028 revenue is realistic or aspirational marketing to justify a $2 trillion price tag won't be testable until Anthropic's prospectus becomes public, which BigGo Finance now expects in late September.

Until the $15 billion credit facility closes and the syndicate finalizes commitments from Barclays, Wells Fargo and the rest, the mid-October marketing window itself remains subject to change. The next concrete milestone to watch is the public prospectus filing, expected in late September, which will be the first moment outside bankers and Anthropic itself get to see the real numbers behind the $2 trillion pitch.