Anthropic could make IPO filing public as early as Monday
The Information reported on October 25 that the S-1 could land within days, after weeks of leaks from drafts and investor meetings on its finances.
Anthropic could make public the filing for its initial public offering as early as Monday, The Information reported on October 25, after weeks in which details from draft filings and investor meetings had circulated.
An S-1, the registration statement a company files with US securities regulators before listing, is where Anthropic would set out its finances and governance in detail. The New York Times wrote on October 26 that Anthropic sits atop a pyramid of business partners and suppliers, making it a barometer of the broader economy.
The Information wrote that the filing could clarify Anthropic's path to profitability, its cash flow and how much it pays Google and Amazon to run its models on their servers. Both companies have also invested in Anthropic.
Governance is another open question. Under Anthropic's structure, a group of non-shareholders called the Long-Term Benefit Trust appoints the majority of its board. The Information has reported that the company developed a plan to give its seven co-founders, including Chief Executive Dario Amodei, a combined 50.1% of voting power even if they reduce their stakes, and to give employees a special class of stock for tiebreaker votes.
The outlet has also reported that Anthropic considered extending its lockup, the period when most shareholders cannot sell their stock, beyond the typical 180 days, while weighing an exception that would let some shareholders sell at the listing. SpaceX and Cerebras did not allow such secondary sales when they went public this year.
Most of Anthropic's revenue has historically come from sales through an application programming interface, a channel that lets developers build its models into their software. Amazon also resells Anthropic's models in exchange for a cut of the sales.
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers, including Amodei, and develops the Claude family of models.
Two of Anthropic's main partners report quarterly results this week, with Google scheduled for Wednesday and Amazon for Thursday.