Anthropic CFO Leads Early IPO Meetings; Claude Watermarks Spark Concerns

Anthropic's CFO, Krishna Rao, is leading early meetings with prospective investors ahead of its potential IPO, discussing big-picture topics without specific financials or a valuation.

The artificial intelligence company confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June. Anthropic closed a funding round in late May at a $965 billion valuation, surpassing OpenAI's $852 billion valuation in late March. Some Anthropic investors expect the company could seek a valuation of $2 trillion or more, based on their own analyses.

Investors anticipate the Claude maker's annualized revenue to be between $100 billion and $120 billion by the end of 2026. The company's run-rate revenue crossed $47 billion in May, up from roughly $10 billion in all of 2025. Anthropic announced that some Claude models will embed an imperceptible watermark directly into their text output to distinguish AI-generated material from human writing.

This move responds to the European Union's AI Act, which requires AI system providers to watermark AI-generated or manipulated outputs. All new models offered globally will mark AI-generated content from day one. Anthropic plans to roll out a free API allowing users and third parties to check text for Claude's watermark. The watermarking plan is prompting questions and unease among some tech figures, including concerns about copyright and digital privacy. Anthropic stated the watermark doesn't change the meaning, quality, or readability of Claude's responses.