A week ago, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged the industry to "pace the frontier." A week later, the company is making moves to accelerate commercially. According to Reuters, Anthropic plans to delay its IPO until after the US midterm elections in November, buying time to disclose stronger third-quarter financials — while sources say the company is considering launching a new AI model before the listing.
The timing of the delayed IPO is carefully chosen. Originally slated for October, the listing pushed to November avoids midterm-election market volatility and gives the company time to show investors its Q3 numbers — annualized revenue has surged from about $9 billion at the end of last year to over $65 billion by July, with backers expecting more than $120 billion by year-end. The market expects a valuation near $2 trillion and a raise of up to $100 billion — either would surpass SpaceX's June record and make it the largest IPO ever. The company has also completed key listing preparations, including a $15 billion revolving credit facility.
More telling is the "new model" news. Three people familiar with the matter say Anthropic is weighing an early release of a new AI model, with a direct aim: countering the momentum of OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra. According to Ramp, a third-party corporate spending tracker, GPT-6 Astra captured roughly 13% of enterprise AI spending within two weeks of launch, versus about 8% for Claude. This makes the "slowdown" rhetoric and "speed-up" action a glaring juxtaposition: Amodei warns "rogue agents could take over the internet within six months," while preparing a stronger model to win customers before the IPO.
For investors, this is the easiest logic to understand: safety narrative is idealism, market share is reality. In weighing model-development spending, safety considerations and IPO timing, Anthropic ultimately chose to respond with product — after all, without a growth story, even the grandest safety vision can't support a $2 trillion valuation. For the industry, the scene confirms again: in the AI arms race, even the most committed "decelerationist" cannot remain indifferent to a rival's offensive.