Anthropic Lost $81 Billion in H1, Files for IPO

Anthropic filed for its initial public offering (IPO) this morning and is allegedly seeking a valuation of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion. But its S-1 filing is predictably filled with red flags, including a $80.7 billion loss in the first half of 2026 and 94 pages of risk warnings, one of which is that it’s almost certainly uninsurable.

“There are four things that we would like any investor in Anthropic to understand: The incredible potential of AI, the risks we must address, Anthropic’s unique approach to building a company and operating in the world, and the ways in which our behavior may differ from that of a purely profit-maximizing company,” the Anthropic S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reads. “We believe that AI is one of the most consequential technologies in human history. If managed well, it could rapidly accelerate scientific innovation, greatly increase economic growth rates, bring cures for major diseases within reach, and solve problems that have resisted generations of human effort.”

No one considering investing in Anthropic should be fooled into believing it is a “purely profit-maximizing company”: According to the filing, it had revenues of $16.3 billion in the first half of 2026 and posted a net loss of $80.7 billion. In the same period one year before, it had revenues of $1.2 billion and a net loss of $13 billion.

And regarding the “if managed well” bit noted in the quote above, the filing contains 94 pages of warnings tied to what will happen if AI is not managed well. There are four broad categories of risk–misuse, loss of control, authoritarian abuse, and economic disruption–it says, admitting that investing in the company “involves a very high degree of risk.”

“Sufficiently advanced AI systems could, if not developed, deployed, and operated with appropriate safeguards, oversight, nd security measures, pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity, particularly if such systems were misused, replicated, weaponized, or allowed to operate with a high degree of autonomy,” the filing explains. “Our safety-focused approach is designed in part to mitigate such risks, but there can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful or that the broader AI industry will adopt similar safeguards.”

Anthropic is hoping to go public in early November and will be listed on the Nasdaq exchange as ANT.