‘Bold, but sane’? The future of AI is riding on Anthropic’s float

October 27, 2026 — 12:21pm

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Anthropic has launched the prospectus for what may be the biggest-ever initial public offering – and the fate of the entire US artificial intelligence complex may rest on it.

The float of the leading frontier model entity, which is expected to raise about $US100 billion, is critical to the continuing ability of a sector that has a voracious and open-ended appetite for capital.

It has to succeed and be seen as successful if the access to the trillions of dollars of new funding the industry will seek over coming years remains open.

If it were to fail, or to be regarded as less than very successful, the highly interconnected and interdependent sector that relies on that continuing access to equity and debt would be at risk – from those at the pointy end like Anthropic and OpenAI to hyperscalers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta, to neoclouds like CoreWeave and Nebius.

And for all but the hyperscalers, the risk would be existential.

The scale of the access to cash required was underscored by the Anthropic’s prospectus. The company – which is about to raise $US100 billion or so, already has $US112.4 billion in cash, and recently increased the size of its revolving credit facility from $US3 billion to $US15 billion – warns in its prospectus that it might need to raise even more funding sooner than it had previously anticipated.

Anthropic’s IPO has to succeed and be seen as successful if the access to the trillions of dollars of new funding the industry will seek over coming years remains open.

To maintain access to funding, AI companies have to be able to boast ever-increasing valuations.

Anthropic was widely expected to raise its $US100 billion at a company valuation of about $US2 trillion, although recent reports suggest........

© The Sydney Morning Herald