Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s chief executive, roiled Wall Street and Silicon Valley recently when he called for more guardrails on the pace of artificial intelligence development.
But even as Dr. Amodei became embroiled in a contentious A.I safety debate, his company — which makes the Claude chatbot — continued to prepare for a blockbuster initial public offering that may shape up to be the biggest listing ever.
The company is expected to generate more than $100 billion in annualized revenue this year, according to four people familiar with the matter. That’s up from $65 billion in annualized revenue as of July. Investors seeking to get a piece of the I.P.O. are using those soaring numbers to justify Anthropic’s staggering potential valuation of $2 trillion.
The A.I. lab could publicly release financial documents detailing its offering as soon as in the coming weeks, which could put it on track for its shares to start trading as soon as November, said two people with knowledge of the situation who, like others quoted in this article, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential plans.
The people stressed that the plans could still change. The timing of I.P.O.s are always subject to change because of factors like shifting investor sentiment and market volatility.
That is particularly the case for a company that is a leading force in an unpredictable industry in which many executives, including its own leader, are increasingly warning about sizable risks.
That the giant I.P.O. is plowing ahead highlights a broader tension surrounding A.I.: Despite worldly concerns about the technology’s disruptive powers, the returns these companies promise to investors are enormously tantalizing.
Going public could give Anthropic quick access to capital to help fund its large financial needs, in particular the substantial computing costs necessary to build and run its A.I. models.
Investors expect the company to have about five gigawatts’ worth of compute — the industry term for computing power — available to use by the end of the year, and would roughly double that capacity by the end of next year, according to three people familiar with the figures. That would put it on par with its rival OpenAI.
On Thursday, Anthropic hosted about 100 investors from venture capital firms at its San Francisco headquarters to discuss its technology offerings in a customer event, according to two people familiar with the event.
Jared Kaplan and Ben Mann, two of Anthropic’s co-founders, and Boris Cherny, the head of Claude Code, made presentations alongside Andrej Karpathy, a researcher and co-founder of OpenAI who joined Anthropic this year, the people said.
Anthropic’s bankers and its executives, including Dr. Amodei and its chief financial officer, Krishna Rao, have also met with potential investors in the I.PO. in recent weeks. The company has taken meetings with those who are willing to write large checks, or are pre-existing investors in Anthropic, four people familiar with the discussions said.
Some smaller investors are hoping to invest at the I.P.O. but haven’t yet managed to obtain an audience with management, these people say.
In some of these meetings, the company has pointed to the positive aspects of artificial intelligence, including its research into biology and potential to cure diseases, according to three people familiar with the pitch.
When asked about the potential threat from China offering cheaper open-weight A.I. models — which publicly provide the underlying calculations of their systems — Anthropic has downplayed the competition. The company has told investors that only a small portion of businesses rely on such models, one person familiar said.
Several investors also said they believe Anthropic can expand its business even if it slows certain A.I. development, as Dr. Amodei recently called for. That’s because the company generates a majority of its revenue selling Claude to business customers, who are still early in their adoption of the technology.
Still, bankers and lawyers say Anthropic is wading through largely uncharted territory with its I.P.O.
Dr. Amodei’s safety warnings raise questions about potential liabilities for the company if, for example, a rogue agent leads to litigation. (These risks are not generally insured.) Dr. Amodei called for the development slowdown shortly after a former Anthropic researcher warned the chance that A.I. could make humans extinct within a decade was greater than 10 percent, creating more cosmic concerns.
“My experience is, it’s a bit like political risk, investors just kind of get their arms around it and just deal with it,” said Craig Coben, a former global head of equity capital markets at Bank of America.
Anthropic’s I.P.O. also raises questions about whether Dr. Amodei can ensure the safety of advanced A.I. models and withstand the pressures of running a publicly traded company that is subject to the whims of public investors clamoring for growth.
Some Anthropic investors argue that as a public company, it can achieve those goals simultaneously.
“Anthropic will IPO,” wrote Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital on social media on Sept. 12. He added, “And its beneficial / critical that we bring even more transparency, scrutiny, accountability, & participation to these grt American companies!”
As a public company, Anthropic would provide insights into its business, most notably its financials. It would also spread the wealth it generates beyond a handful of private shareholders, potentially giving more of the country a direct stake in the success and safety of A.I.
There may be limits to that transparency, said Jesse Fried, a law professor Harvard Law School, who has studied Anthropic’s governance. Anthropic would still be able to keep some data — like what is transpiring in its lab — confidential.
“If you’re worried about, like, agents emerging from the testing dungeons of Anthropic and taking over the world, it doesn’t really help,” Mr. Fried said.
OpenAI is taking a different approach. Last week, its chief executive, Sam Altman, said the company was putting off its public listing until 2027. The company had already been weighing a 2027 listing as it shores up its finances and tries for a $1 trillion valuation. (It is in talks to privately raise funds at a $1.5 trillion valuation.)
(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The two companies have denied those claims.)
OpenAI’s delay may make it even more appealing for Anthropic to go public now, said Edward Best, a partner in capital markets at the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, before any regulation forced broad change upon the industry.
“If you can get your valuation out, I would say strike while the iron’s hot,” Mr. Best said.
Maureen Farrell contributed reporting.
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