Agentic AI , Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning , Next-Generation Technologies & Secure Development

Anthropic submitted a draft registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday for a proposed initial public offering that could surpass $1 trillion in market capitaliztion.

The highly anticipated S-1 filing by Anthropic - which is on the same track as an upcoming IPO for top competitor OpenAI - gives the Silicon Valley firm the option to go public after the SEC completes its review.

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News that Anthropic surpassed OpenAI in valuation for the first time ever validates what recent frontier model usage data has found: There's a new sheriff in town.

OpenAI shocked the world with its capabilities in November 2022 when it made ChatGPT 3.5 generally available, and Sam Altman's command of the attention economy translated into early market share dominance. By late 2023, OpenAI commanded 50% of the enterprise large language model market, Menlo Ventures found, while Anthropic sat in a distant third behind both OpenAI and Google with just 12% share.

Market usage was reflected in the company's respective market caps, with OpenAI's valuation climbing to $86 billion in January 2024 while Anthropic's sat at just $19 billion, according to Sherwood. And when it came to U.S. businesses with paid subscriptions, Anthropic was barely registering with 0.4% paying for use in January 2024 while a more respectable 10.2% were paying to use OpenAI, according to Ramp.

But the tide turned as OpenAI's groundbreaking advances with large language models became a more distant memory and other frontier labs stepped up their performance, setting up a high noon showdown in Silicon Valley. By mid-2025, Menlo Ventures named Anthropic the new top gun in enterprise artificial intelligence market with 32% share, with OpenAI capturing just 25% of enterprise usage - half of what it held just two years earlier.

Anthropic's momentum was fueled by Claude becoming the developer's top choice for code generation, capturing 42% of the market share for AI coding as of mid-2025, doubling up OpenAI's 21% coding share. But a surge in paid subscriptions for OpenAI in early 2025 meant its lead had only grown, with 33.4% of U.S. businesses paying for an OpenAI subscription in June 2025 while just 9.6% paid for Anthropic (see: Anthropic Expands Public Access to Claude Mythos AI Model).

The valuation gap also persisted, with Anthropic notching a $183 billion valuation in September 2025 and OpenAI tripling them up with a $500 billion valuation just a month later. When it came to token use, the two AI models were neck-and-neck as of June 1, 2025, with Anthropic at 20.8% share and OpenAI at 17.9% share, according to OpenRouter, which allows firms to dynamically switch between AI models.

How the Frontier Model Market Has Changed Over the Past Year

Over the past year, Anthropic cemented its position as the category leader for frontier AI. A surge in Chinese models cut into the token share of all U.S.-based providers, but Anthropic passed Google as the token leader even as its share dipped to 18.7%, OpenRouter found. OpenAI's token share nosedived over the past year to just 9.6%, putting the company behind Anthropic, DeepSeek, Google and Tencent.

When it comes to paid subscriptions, OpenAI actually saw business adoption drop slightly since last spring to 32.3%, while Anthropic's business adoption has nearly quadrupled over that same period to 34.4%, Ramp found. And now, market caps have caught up with adoption, with Anthropic's latest valuation of $965 billion surpassing the $850 billion valuation OpenAI notched just three months ago.

Anthropic's skyrocketing valuations aligns with its stratospheric growth in revenue run rate - which projects annual revenue based on a month's financial performance. The run rate has grown from $4 billion in July 2025 to $9 billion in December 2025 to $30 billion last month to $47 billion today. OpenAI's revenue run rate growth has been more measured, going from $24 billion in March to $30 million as of this week.

To put things into perspective, Anthropic's valuation now surpasses the joint market cap of Cisco and Costco, which have been in business a combined 85 years. Anthropic was established just five years ago. Anthropic's valuation even exceeds that of Walmart, which has been around for 64 years and is the second-largest company in the world as measured by annual revenue, behind Amazon.

In addition to surpassing most of the world's top companies in valuation, Anthropic is now the world's second most valuable startup behind only SpaceX, which achieved nearly a $1.3 trillion valuation after purchasing xAI in February. xAI pales in comparison to Anthropic, though, with only 1.9% of U.S. businesses paying to use it, a figure that hasn't meaningfully changed since last July.

Anthropic has been able to maintain profitability amid exponential growth, with the company collecting $4.8 billion in the first quarter and set to report $559 million in operating profit in its current quarter, The New York Times reported. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are targeting initial public offerings this fall, meaning Thursday's announcement could be the last private fundraising for either organization.

If current trends continue in the untamed frontier AI market, Anthropic might leave OpenAI behind to eat its dust.

Update June 1 14:30 UTC: Includes Anthropic draft registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering.