Anthropic just made history — though it’s history being written at a pace that’s hard to absorb. On May 28, 2026, the company announced a Series H round of $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation. Yes, you read that right: $65 billion in a single round. For context, that figure is larger than the GDP of entire countries. And just four days later, on June 1, Anthropic filed its confidential S-1 with the SEC, formally kicking off the IPO process.
To put this in perspective, it’s worth looking back. In early 2023, Anthropic was valued at $4.1 billion. By September 2025, it had jumped to $183 billion. In February 2026, with the Series G, it reached $380 billion. And now, three months later, it is on the verge of crossing a trillion. It is a trajectory with no precedent in the history of tech startups — not even at the wildest peak of the 2000 bubble.
What drove this explosion? Mainly two things: revenue and product. Anthropic reported a revenue run rate of $47 billion in May 2026, up from $30 billion at the start of the year and the $10 billion it closed 2025 with. The growth rate is brutal. And the primary engine has been Claude Code, the company’s coding tool, which already reached an annualized run rate of $2.5 billion in February 2026. Anthropic bet heavily on the enterprise market — unlike OpenAI, which built its initial success around ChatGPT as a consumer product — and that bet is paying off.
The profitability numbers are equally striking. According to Wall Street Journal reports cited by TechCrunch, Anthropic expects its first profitable quarter. CNBC calculates the company is on track to generate approximately $559 million in operating profit in the second quarter of 2026. If confirmed, it would be the first profitable quarter of any major foundation model lab. Neither OpenAI, nor Google DeepMind, nor anyone else has crossed that threshold yet.
The Series H was co-led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, Capital Group, Coatue, and D1 Capital Partners. Strategic investors included Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — a sign that chip manufacturers see Anthropic as a key partner for the future of AI infrastructure. One important detail: $15 billion of the round corresponds to prior hyperscaler commitments, including $5 billion from Amazon. The relationship with Amazon, which began as a $4 billion investment, has become one of the most strategic alliances in the ecosystem.
On the same day as the Series H announcement, Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4.8, with improved coding and autonomous task execution capabilities. It also introduced Claude Mythos Preview, an advanced cybersecurity model available to select enterprises. The company is not standing still: while it raises capital and prepares for the IPO, it keeps pushing product.
The IPO is shaping up to be one of the financial events of the year. Anthropic, OpenAI (which is also preparing its IPO, potentially in September 2026), and SpaceX (which filed its IPO prospectus in late May) are in a three-front race to reach the public market. TradingView projects that Anthropic’s IPO date could be October 23, 2026. But the exact timing will depend on market conditions, SEC review, and competitive dynamics.
Why does all this matter? Because Anthropic went from being “OpenAI’s safety spin-off” to the most valuable AI company on the planet in just over three years. Its story is a demonstration that the enterprise-first approach, combined with a credible safety thesis and flawless execution, can compete with — and beat — the mass-consumer approach. And its IPO will be a litmus test: is the public market willing to price a company worth nearly a trillion dollars before it has reported its first profitable quarter? All signs point to yes, but the final answer will come from investors when the S-1 becomes public.
One final nuance: although many headlines call it “the most valuable startup in history,” technically SpaceX/xAI has a higher valuation (around $1.25 trillion after the merger). Anthropic is, precisely, the most valuable AI startup in history. Not a bad title for a company that started with a letter asking for safer AI development.
Main source: Anthropic — Series H Official Announcement