Anthropic files potentially biggest IPO ever, CEO warns of risk to humanity from AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Anthropic filed papers Monday for what could be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) of stock ever even as its top executive warns that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity.

The filing sets up the San Francisco company for a Wall Street debut next month, potentially eclipsing the SpaceX initial public offering in June that raised a record US$86 billion. An Anthropic IPO would also put the company ahead of OpenAI in going public in what is expected to be a pair of blockbuster stock debuts for the rival AI labs.

An IPO could provide Anthropic with enormous resources to accelerate its expansion. The amount the company ultimately raises remains uncertain as do its final valuation and offering price, but even at lower estimates, it would turn the five-year-old startup into one of the world’s most valuable companies and potentially boost the wealth of CEO Dario Amodei and his sister and co-founder, Daniela, by billions of dollars.