AI giant Anthropic files paperwork for an IPO

Anthropic is an American artificial intelligence (AI) company founded in 2021. RICCARDO MILANI/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption

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Anthropic, maker of Claude, one of the most popular artificial intelligence models on the market, has started the ball rolling on an initial public offering.

The company announced on Monday that it has "confidentially submitted" a draft registration statement known as a Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its proposed IPO.

"This gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review," it said in an announcement. "The proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors."

Anthropic said the number of shares and price have not yet been set.

The filing sets the stage for what is shaping up to be a trio of potential mega-listings by tech companies: Elon Musk's SpaceX, involved in rocketry and AI, filed financial information in late May for an IPO. And OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is also widely reported to be planning a listing.

"We believe this represents an opening of the floodgates for the IPO market, which has been relatively dormant for a few years, with these three major conglomerates set to go public later this year, but this has turned into a race to reach public markets over the coming months," analysts at Wedbush Securities wrote in a note after Anthropic's announcement.