SAN FRANCISCO, California: Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, becoming the first of the major AI model developers to take a formal step toward public markets and potentially gaining an advantage over rival OpenAI.

The company announced the filing on June 1 but did not disclose the size or terms of the proposed offering.

Anthropic's move comes amid intense investor interest in artificial intelligence companies, whose soaring private valuations have fueled speculation about some of the largest stock market debuts in history.

The company, best known for its Claude family of AI models and coding assistant Claude Code, was valued at $965 billion following a funding round completed in late May. That valuation placed it ahead of OpenAI and among the world's most valuable private companies.

The filing sets up a closely watched test of how public investors value frontier AI companies and could help establish benchmarks for the rapidly growing sector.

It was reported in May that OpenAI was also preparing to confidentially file for a U.S. IPO in the coming weeks. The AI listing race follows the massive IPO plans of SpaceX, which is pursuing a $75 billion offering at a $1.75 trillion valuation.

Confidential filings allow companies to begin the IPO process without immediately revealing detailed financial information to competitors or the public. "Filing shortly after SpaceX allows Anthropic to capitalize on strong investor interest in AI and growth stocks while the window remains favorable," said Kat Liu, vice president at IPO research firm IPOX.

"Anthropic's valuation ambitions appear far less aggressive in comparison (to SpaceX) than they might have looked in isolation," Liu added.

Anthropic and OpenAI have emerged as two of the most influential companies driving the AI boom, which has reshaped corporate strategies and sparked a global race for talent, computing power and investment.

"For OpenAI, the conventional read is that Anthropic just seized the narrative advantage by filing first," said Harrison Rolfes, senior analyst at PitchBook.

"The unconventional read is that OpenAI got the better end of this: Anthropic just volunteered to absorb all the disclosure risk first, and OpenAI now has a free option to watch how institutional investors react to audited frontier AI financials before committing to its own price," Rolfes said.

Anthropic's valuation has surged from $380 billion in February, when it raised $30 billion in a funding round. The company's rapid growth has drawn backing from major investors including Blackstone, Brookfield, D1 Capital Partners, GIC, General Catalyst and Insight Partners.

Analysts say the timing of these IPOs may be critical as several large companies compete for investor capital.

"The combined demand for capital from SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic will be so considerable that it is likely to create disruptions in the capital markets, so going early will be a great advantage," said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson.

Global IPO activity has strengthened in recent weeks, with companies raising $87.5 billion through May 26, the highest year-to-date total since 2021, according to Dealogic data.