Anthropic has chosen Nasdaq for its IPO. What investors need to know about its profitability

Anthropic has chosen the Nasdaq stock exchange to list its shares as part of its upcoming IPO, Business Insider and Bloomberg reported, citing their sources. The world’s most valuable AI startup has informed a select group of shareholders that it expects positive adjusted operating income for the second consecutive quarter, the Financial Times has learned.

Anthropic has chosen Nasdaq as the venue for its initial public offering, Business Insider reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. A Bloomberg source later confirmed this information. Anthropic and Nasdaq declined to comment.

Anthropic's IPO could take place as early as October, and the startup expects to match or exceed the amount raised by Elon Musk's SpaceX. According to an FT source, Anthropic's valuation at the time of the offering could exceed $2 trillion.

Nasdaq maintains a strong position in technology IPOs, notes Business Insider. Listing on this exchange is a prerequisite for inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 index. However, the choice of exchange is likely to have little impact on Anthropic’s future stock performance, the publication writes: there is no clear-cut answer to the question of whether companies perform better on one exchange than another.

Anthropic’s IPO prospectus was expected as early as last week, but the company first shared the documents with a small group of investors and will answer their questions before making the materials publicly available, the FT reported, citing its sources. Financial figures must be disclosed at least 15 days before the start of the roadshow (a series of presentations to potential investors), Business Insider notes.

The AI race has revitalized the IPO market: Since the beginning of 2026, U.S. IPOs have raised $160.6 billion, excluding shell companies and other financial structures, according to Bloomberg. This is a record since 2021.

Anthropic has informed a small group of shareholders that its adjusted operating profit will be positive for the second consecutive quarter, the FT reports, citing sources. This metric excludes certain expenses, including stock-based compensation, the newspaper notes. In the second quarter, Anthropic’s revenue grew 14-fold year-over-year to $11.5 billion, and the company posted an adjusted operating profit, the newspaper notes.

According to FT sources, Anthropic’s gross margin exceeds 80%, but this calculation does not take into account the costs of training models or payments to partners—including Amazon—to whom the company transfers a portion of its revenue. The publication does not provide the margin figure after accounting for these costs.

By the end of July, Anthropic’s annualized revenue had reached $65 billion, compared with $9 billion at the end of 2025, according to the FT. This figure reflects the revenue the company would have generated over a 12-month period if it had maintained its sales growth rate as of that date.

Investors expect this figure to reach $120 billion by the end of 2026—meaning the revenue growth rate will be nearly double that of July, the FT reports, citing SemiAnalysis analyst Joey Brookhart. By the end of 2027, according to the same forecasts, annualized revenue is expected to be nearly three times the projected level at the end of 2026, Brookhart added.

On September 12, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed to the American business magazine *Fortune* that the company will remain private in 2026, even though it filed for an IPO in June. Altman called 2026 “the wrong time” to go public due to concerns about AI safety.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated in an essay published that same day that the industry should slow down the expansion of AI models' capabilities. Altman and Musk have made similar calls.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor