Anthropic's IPO, which could raise $100bn at a $2tn valuation, is being treated as a real-time test of whether the AI boom is a bubble.
Anthropic's S-1 shows an $80bn net loss, largely from a convertible debt accounting quirk, alongside $16.3bn in first-half revenue and growth that slowed to 44 percent in the third quarter.
The 93-page risk factor section warns of existential risks and may delay deprecating older models, while founders pledged 80 percent of their equity to charity and governance keeps control with a small group.
Anthropic's IPO Filing Puts the AI Boom to the Test
Funding and deals
Anthropic. The Claude maker filed to go public and might raise $100bn at a $2tn valuation, after $16.3bn in first-half revenue.
Guest interviews
Erin Griffith, Technology reporter at The New York Times. Anthropic's filing shows an $80bn net loss she blames on a convertible-debt accounting quirk, while the first-half operating loss shrank to about $600m to $700m from over $2bn. Growth of 14 times slowed to 44% in the third quarter as Claude Code cooled and OpenAI caught up. She expects a roadshow pitch on drug discovery and legal tech, with public investors choosing between $2tn and maybe $1.5tn.
Jasmine Sun, Journalist and writer. AI ranks only about 22 of 39 voter issues, but data centers are an 80-20 issue that shaped Wisconsin and Michigan primaries and could help Sherrod Brown stage an Ohio comeback. She says most Republican voters want AI regulation, and American Compass wants the party to act after the midterms. Anthropic's founders have pledged 80% of their equity to charity.
Mike Isaac, Technology reporter at The New York Times. He says Anthropic's filing now leads with curing cancer before its risks. Microsoft's yearly security fixes have climbed into the hundreds as AI finds more flaws, and he expects the Internet to break faster. He predicts employers will use AI to justify smaller layoffs.
News
Billionaires spend $333m fighting California wealth tax. Prop 40, a one-time 5% tax on billionaire wealth including unrealized gains, goes to voters next Tuesday. Sergey Brin funds most of the opposition and works through partner groups such as Planned Parenthood.
Microsoft offers buyouts to 60,000 employees. Microsoft has about 230,000 staff and expects 3% to 5% of those offered to accept. Erin Griffith says tech's cuts may foreshadow the rest of the economy.
PHP flaw Black October overwhelms security teams. The vulnerability hit a language used on a huge number of websites. The hosts agree security work will get harder as AI finds more flaws in infrastructure code.
Joel Kaplan leaves Meta after fifteen years. Meta's head of policy, whom Max Reed calls a conservative whisperer, is departing as tech companies rethink their Washington teams ahead of the midterms.
Anthropic study shows experts quietly defer to AI. In a randomized trial of statistical analysts, over 80% made the same decision as the AI, yet only 15% said it influenced them.
Amazon memo rejects token maxing as engineer metric. A distinguished engineer argues token use and lines of code are poor measures of engineers. Erin Griffith says the reversal came very fast.
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On this episode 4
Show 1
Andreessen Horowitz renames crypto fund a16z Frontier. Erin Griffith says 80% to 90% of venture dollars now go to AI, leaving crypto with fewer investable startups.