Anthropic warns of ‘catastrophic’ AI risks in its own IPO filing

As Anthropic gears up for its greatly anticipated public debut, a preview of the company’s IPO filing reportedly details its mounting losses, leadership proposals to retain power, and how its AI development plans could “further increase the risk that our models cause harm.” These disclosures come as Anthropic eyes a $2 trillion valuation, more than double the $965 billion it was valued at four months ago, making it a contender to overtake SpaceX as the largest IPO in history. According to Reuters, which reportedly reviewed Anthropic’s prospectus, the AI startup plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing, and infrastructure obligations in the coming years, betting on artificial intelligence becoming essential to the global economy. While Anthropic’s revenue increased 12-fold to nearly $4.6 billion in 2025, it reported a net loss of $42 billion the same year, and lost more than $8 billion through business operations alone. It primarily makes money via metered token usage and customer subscriptions for its Claude models — a similar business model to rival providers like OpenAI and Google — but Anthropic’s revenue stream is seemingly limited. The Financial Times reports that nearly a quarter of its revenue in 2025 came from just two clients, which is a precarious situation for any company, let alone one trying to tempt prospective investors into a $2 trillion IPO. Reuters also reports that Anthropic dedicated a huge section of its prospectus — 80 pages of the 261-page filing — to concerns about the very technology it’s pitching to backers. “Our development of highly advanced models, platforms, and applications and expansion of use cases could further increase the risk that our models cause harm,” Anthropic warned, adding that advanced ​AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.” Anthropic reportedly highlights risks analyzed in its own AI models within the prospectus, finding they had attempted to “conceal or manipulate information” and seemingly blackmail users, alongside exhibiting “self-preserving behaviors” like resisting attempts to shut them down. Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger estimated earlier this month that the probability of ​AI killing humans within the next decade is greater than 10 percent, mirroring claims made by former colleague Jacob Coxon. These alarms are being raised by the same company that has repeatedly claimed its AI is conscious. The prospectus also lays out how key leadership plan to retain power over the company after it goes public. It outlines a “Founder LLC” that aims to keep the company focused on developing responsible AI to benefit humanity, while shielding key Anthropic execs from market forces. The LLC will include CEO Dario Amodei and the six other Anthropic cofounders, who are deemed “distinctly equipped” to steward the company, according to the filing. As a Public Benefit Corporation under Delaware law, the seven cofounders would also hold 50.1 percent of total voting power. The extent to which Amodei and other Anthropic leaders will financially benefit from the IPO in November remains to be seen. According to the filing, Amodei made nearly $18 million in 2025, mostly obtained through stock and option awards, with his sister Daniela Amodei earning $16.4 million as the company’s second-highest paid ​executive. Amodei’s already vast wealth and power could soon get a sizable upgrade, just in time for him to cozy up to world leaders and political figures.