Anthropic delays IPO as market questions AI sector valuations
AI developer Anthropic has postponed its initial public offering amid growing investor skepticism regarding the sector's profitability, high infrastructure costs, and safety concerns.
Anthropic has delayed its planned public offering until November, facing a market increasingly critical of its $2 trillion valuation target. Despite reporting significant quarterly revenue growth, the company’s internal disclosures highlight substantial financial risks, including a $42 billion net loss in 2025 and locked-in infrastructure commitments totaling over $518 billion over the next decade.
The viability of the company’s current business model is being challenged by the rise of open-weight AI models, which offer enterprise-level performance at a fraction of the cost of Anthropic’s proprietary systems. Industry research suggests that the cost gap between closed and open models is narrowing, threatening the pricing power required to justify Anthropic’s extreme valuation multiples.
Broader industry signals, including skepticism from institutional investors regarding safety and the decision by competitor OpenAI to remain private, underscore the caution surrounding the sector. With reports suggesting that only a small fraction of organizations have achieved clear ROI from generative AI, analysts warn that the current AI investment cycle may be disconnected from immediate commercial reality.