Anthropic IPO slips to November, revenue target tops $110 billion

Anthropic is reportedly pushing back its IPO by at least a month, and the delay comes alongside a higher revenue outlook. When the $2 trillion valuation target first surfaced, Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate was around $65 billion, implying a price-to-sales multiple of 30 times. Now the company reportedly expects annualized revenue to exceed $110 billion by year-end, which would bring that multiple down to about 18x at the same valuation.

For comparison, SpaceX went public earlier this year at nearly $1.8 trillion, trading at around 93.6 times sales, while the S&P 500 traded at about 3.5 times sales. Anthropic's growth has been steep: it generated about $10 billion in revenue last year, posted $11.5 billion in the second quarter of this year, and its annualized revenue run rate hit $47 billion in May. By 2028, it projects between $190 billion and $200 billion in revenue, which the article says implies a multiple contracting to around 10x.

The company cites a total addressable market of $30 trillion, larger than the $28.5 trillion SpaceX saw at its IPO, though the article cautions neither company is expected to capture anything near those figures. The outcome hinges on whether that revenue pace holds through year-end, since the lower multiple depends on the higher revenue expectation being met. For IPO investors weighing Anthropic against other recent listings, that gap between target valuation and realized revenue is likely to be the deciding factor.