Anthropic’s IPO has already been called the marquee public offering of the fourth quarter, but now its significance has grown even further: other companies are postponing or canceling their listings one after another, citing market conditions. The key question is whether the developer of Claude will go public before Thanksgiving or, like other companies and OpenAI, postpone its IPO until next year, Axios.com reports.

Why Anthropic could go public right now

The situation around the AI industry still looks better than might have been expected amid growing talk about safety and the need to slow the release of new models. Even though the term “alignment” is gradually becoming part of the mainstream discussion, shares of the largest technology companies continue to rise.

Over the past month, SpaceX — which is both a competitor and a supplier to Anthropic — as well as Nvidia, Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft have all gained in value. This is not about a sharp rally, but the very resilience of these stocks amid intensifying concerns around AI could be an important signal for investors.

The example of SpaceX is also telling: the company initially surprised the market with massive losses and then entered the market with plans to stage the largest IPO in history.

Another important factor for Anthropic is money. The company can continue raising funds in the private market, as Bloomberg reports OpenAI intends to do. But additional funding rounds complicate the ownership structure and do not give the company the opportunities that come with public status.

Going public would give Anthropic a publicly traded currency for deals and increase pressure on its main rival, OpenAI. In addition, Anthropic itself links the transparency of being a public company with improved safety: open reporting and closer investor scrutiny should make the company’s operations more accountable.

Finally, the political environment may be creating a small window of opportunity for Anthropic. After the recent meeting between the largest AI companies and the White House, some of the regulatory risks facing the industry appear less acute. If the company sees the current political backdrop as acceptable for going public, delaying the IPO may be disadvantageous.

The main argument against an IPO is the scale of the losses

For the public market, the problem is much more straightforward: investors will have to accept Anthropic’s financials, which may look extremely difficult.

Reuters reported that, according to Anthropic’s IPO documents, the company posted around $42 billion in losses in 2025. A significant portion of that sum is tied to accounting expenses related to stock-based compensation, but the number itself could substantially change how potential investors perceive the company.

There is also speculation that disclosing these figures in advance may have been intended to prepare the market for even larger losses in 2026.

This is a particularly sensitive issue for Anthropic: in a public offering, the company will have far fewer opportunities to explain its financial results in private. Investors’ first impression may prove decisive for the valuation of the business.

The company will have to explain where it is heading

Another issue is connected not so much with money as with Anthropic’s strategy itself.

The company’s management will have to convincingly explain to investors how its commercial plans, its ambition to rapidly develop the most powerful models, and its hard-line stance on AI safety fit together. The banks underwriting the IPO will need to help CEO Dario Amodei articulate this strategy even before the roadshow and the first public reports begin.

Against this backdrop, Anthropic and OpenAI continue to constantly trade places in the model race. The companies take turns releasing new systems as they try to outdo each other. Right now, Anthropic appears, according to a number of assessments, to be slightly behind OpenAI, which adds uncertainty ahead of the public offering.

Delaying the IPO could also be a rational choice

Finally, Anthropic may take advantage of the broader trend and postpone its listing along with other companies.

If the IPO market remains difficult, a delay would give the company additional time to improve its financial performance and wait for a more suitable moment. According to estimates discussed earlier, Anthropic’s revenue could grow significantly in the future, meaning a later listing could potentially allow it to present investors with a more attractive financial picture.

At the same time, the company would have to revisit its valuation expectations. Anthropic’s potential value had previously been discussed at around $2 trillion, but if the market is not currently prepared to pay that price, trying to carry out an IPO at an inflated valuation could be riskier than postponing the offering.

In the end, Anthropic has to choose between two possibilities: seize the moment when competitors are stepping back and the market’s attention is focused on the company, or wait until its financials and position in the AI model race look more convincing. The decision will depend not only on the state of the stock market, but also on how confident the company is in its near-term financial results.