Inside Anthropic's IPO Filing: A $518B Spending Plan and Founder Control

Anthropic's IPO prospectus, reviewed by Reuters, lays out both the scale of the company's growth and the extent to which its seven co-founders intend to keep control after going public.

The financial picture

Revenue rose more than twelvefold to $4.59 billion in fiscal 2025. Compute and infrastructure costs nearly tripled to $7.33 billion, accounting for 58% of total operating expenses of roughly $12.65 billion. The GAAP operating loss widened to $8.06 billion. The much larger $41.97 billion net loss is driven mostly by an accounting charge: roughly $34 billion of it reflects the rising estimated value of financing instruments that could convert into company shares, not cash spent running the business. Anthropic held $20.28 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments as of December 31, and said two direct customers each accounted for 12% of revenue, or 24% combined.

The prospectus also discloses a $518 billion commitment to cloud, computing, and infrastructure spending over the coming years, according to Reuters — more than 100 times the company's 2025 revenue. Anthropic is reportedly targeting a valuation north of $2 trillion for the offering, more than double the $965 billion figure it carried in May, which would put it among the largest IPOs on record.

Founder control after the IPO

Separately, the filing outlines a governance structure built to keep the seven co-founders in control of key decisions after the company lists. A new entity called the Founder LLC, made up of the seven co-founders including CEO Dario Amodei, will collectively direct a single share of Class F stock carrying 50.1% of the vote on specified corporate matters, decided by majority vote among the founders themselves. Anthropic will keep its status as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, which the filing says lets leadership weigh its "low-ego, truth-seeking" mission alongside investor returns.

Public Class A shares carry one vote each, and the prospectus explicitly warns that governance decisions made under this structure "may conflict with the financial interests of Class A holders" and could affect share value. Board seats are split differently from voting power: Dario Amodei, his sister and board chair Daniela Amodei, and one still-unnamed director will be elected by Class F and Class A holders, while the company's Long-Term Benefit Trust — whose members include former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke — elects the other four of seven board seats. The founders have also pledged to dedicate 80% of their personal Anthropic equity to charitable causes, separate from the voting arrangement.

The Founder LLC's special voting power isn't permanent: it begins to sunset once two or fewer founders or their successors remain, following departures that can include resignation, death, selling too many shares, or removal for cause.