Anthropic CFO leads early IPO meetings, no valuation discussed

Anthropic Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao is leading early meetings with prospective investors ahead of the company’s anticipated initial public offering, according to sources who spoke with CNBC’s David Faber.

The discussions have remained high-level and have not touched on specific financials or a valuation, the sources said.

Anthropic confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2026 and has not announced an official timeline for its public debut.

In the sessions, Anthropic has focused on broad themes including its Claude family of AI models, the development of its coding assistant Claude Code, its standing in the enterprise market, its management team, and the number of product releases it has executed, according to people familiar with the matter.

A representative for Anthropic did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by researchers and executives who left OpenAI, now its chief rival. In late May 2026, the company closed a funding round at a $965 billion valuation, surpassing OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation from late March 2026. Anthropic said in May 2026 that its run-rate revenue crossed $47 billion, up from roughly $10 billion in revenue for all of 2025.

Some Anthropic investors expect the company could seek a valuation of $2 trillion or more, based on their own analyses, according to two sources familiar with the matter. That figure is not coming from Anthropic itself, the sources said. The Financial Times first reported that investors were floating the $2 trillion expectation.

OpenAI is also preparing for a potentially massive IPO, having confidentially filed its prospectus with regulators shortly after Anthropic did. As of late June 2026, OpenAI had not held pre-IPO meetings or outlined an official timeline for its listing, CNBC previously reported.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which acquired his AI startup xAI in 2026, made a record-breaking debut on the Nasdaq in June 2026. As of Aug. 13, 2026, its stock was off roughly 38% from its intraday high after a volatile first two months of trading.