Ethan BrooksVIEW PROFILE →
The artificial intelligence boom moves into capital markets as Anthropic eyes a record breaking IPO
Artificial intelligence is spilling out of the software world and into global capital markets. With Anthropic preparing what could become one of the largest public offerings in history, chipmakers raising tens of billions in debt, and robotaxis expanding across American cities, 2026 is proving to be
The artificial intelligence boom that has dominated technology headlines for years is now spilling well beyond the software layer and into the heart of global capital markets. In 2026, the money involved in building and deploying AI has reached staggering proportions, reshaping how companies raise funds, how chips are financed, and how investors think about the future of the technology sector.
Anthropic prepares a historic listing
At the centre of this shift is Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company that is preparing for what could become one of the largest initial public offerings ever recorded. According to reports, the company could file its public IPO documents as soon as the end of August 2026, in a move that has captured the attention of investors and analysts around the world.
The scale of Anthropic's growth has been remarkable. The company's annualised revenue run rate reached approximately 65 billion dollars by July 2026, representing growth of around 600 per cent from the end of 2025. In its second quarter of 2026 alone, Anthropic reported revenue of about 11.5 billion dollars, a figure that was roughly fourteen times higher than in the same period a year earlier.
These numbers place Anthropic ahead of its rival OpenAI, whose annualised revenue reached around 40 billion dollars. Anthropic had already filed confidential IPO paperwork in June 2026 at a valuation of 965 billion dollars, and expectations are now that the offering could rival or even surpass the record set by SpaceX earlier in the year.
Measuring up to the SpaceX record
The benchmark that Anthropic is chasing is a formidable one. When SpaceX went public, it priced its shares at 135 dollars each, raised around 75 billion dollars, and achieved a valuation of approximately 1.77 trillion dollars. Matching or beating this would place Anthropic among the most valuable companies ever to list on a public exchange.
Investor enthusiasm is reflected in prediction markets, where participants have been placing bets on the outcome. On one such platform, Anthropic was given odds of around 44 to 45 per cent of surpassing the SpaceX record, with some scenarios pointing to an October listing that could target a valuation of as much as 2 trillion dollars, an extraordinary figure for a company still so young.
Powerful partnerships underpin the growth
Anthropic's rise has been supported by deep partnerships with some of the largest names in technology. Amazon has committed around 13 billion dollars in equity so far, with an option to invest up to 33 billion dollars in total, alongside a cloud services commitment worth 100 billion dollars over the next ten years and access to up to 5 gigawatts of computing capacity on Amazon's own AI chips.
The company has also entered into major infrastructure arrangements to secure the vast computing power it requires. One such deal involves monthly payments of approximately 1.25 billion dollars running through 2029, together with the leasing of more than 300,000 advanced Nvidia chips. These commitments underline just how capital intensive the development of frontier AI models has become.
A wave of AI financing
Anthropic is far from the only company reshaping capital markets. The chipmaker Broadcom has been seeking more than 60 billion dollars in debt to support artificial intelligence infrastructure, in a financing package that could ultimately reach as much as 100 billion dollars. This structure reportedly includes a combination of senior secured debt and additional junior financing, some of it linked to AI infrastructure involving Anthropic itself.
Meanwhile, Nvidia has continued to expand its reach across the AI landscape. The company struck a 6 billion dollar non-exclusive licensing agreement with the startup Poolside, accompanied by an additional 1 billion dollar investment at a pre-money valuation of 12 billion dollars. As part of the arrangement, approximately 109 employees of the startup were reported to be receiving job offers from Nvidia.
AI reaches the streets and the job market
The influence of artificial intelligence is not limited to boardrooms and stock exchanges. On the streets of American cities, autonomous vehicles are becoming a visible reality. In Las Vegas, regulators approved permits for up to 5,000 Tesla robotaxis over the coming year, while the companies Waymo and Uber were each authorised to operate up to 1,000 vehicles in the same market.
The technology is also reshaping the labour market in unexpected ways. New York recently overtook the San Francisco Bay Area as the leading hub for technology talent in the United States, with its tech workforce reaching approximately 394,300 jobs compared with the Bay Area's 375,730, the first time this had happened in thirteen years. Artificial intelligence roles now account for nearly a third of all United States tech job listings.
Questions beneath the excitement
Despite the extraordinary momentum, some analysts have urged caution. Observers have noted that claims of profitability among leading AI companies often leave out the single most expensive part of the business, namely the enormous cost of building the models themselves. This raises important questions about whether the current pace of spending can be sustained over the long term.
Taken together, the developments of 2026 mark a defining moment in the story of artificial intelligence. As the technology moves decisively into capital markets, chip financing, transportation and the job market, the coming months, and Anthropic's landmark offering in particular, are likely to shape the direction of the entire sector for years to come.
