Hayden Field is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets.After months of speculation about whether OpenAI or Anthropic would be first in their race to IPO, Anthropic on Monday reached a key milestone: filing to kick off the process with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.The filing sets the stage for what’s sure to be a massive IPO. As of its fundraise last week, Anthropic is being called the world’s most valuable startup, with a post-money valuation of $965 billion. That tops the $852 billion post-money valuation of OpenAI, which is its biggest rival.Anthropic chose to submit its draft registration statement to the SEC confidentially, according to a blog post from the company, meaning key details typically included in that form about a company’s operations — like potential risks to its business, executive compensation, and other financials — won’t become public until later on in the process.The news comes less than two weeks before SpaceX’s planned June 12 IPO. Elon Musk’s SpaceX — which owns xAI and also has a newly-minted deal with Anthropic that has the latter paying $15 billion per year to use SpaceX data centers — is currently set to raise $80 billion in its public debut, which would make it the largest IPO in history.The filing also comes shortly after OpenAI came out ahead in its high-profile legal battle with Musk, when a judge dismissed all claims due to the statute of limitations.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Hayden Field
