As Anthropic rolls out IPO filing, the AI arms race is only getting hotter

 With Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, and SpaceX all jockeying for capital to fund their AI ambitions, the competition has ratcheted up — and hundreds of billions of dollars are on the line.

What is each company planning? And what could it all mean for crypto?

Here’s what you need to know. 

Anthropic is set to IPO as soon as next month

The AI company officially filed for its IPO on Monday, and its debut could be the biggest ever, potentially valuing the company at as much as $2 trillion on day one. The Claude developer is hoping to raise as much as $100 billion through the listing, which could “[reshape] benchmark indices, investor flows, and the broader narrative driving U.S. equities,” according to Reuters. 

In its prospectus, a document that explains the details of Anthropic’s business, the company disclosed revenue of $16.3 billion in the first half of this year, with a net loss of more than $80 billion in that same span, though the loss was largely due to a non-operating expense. 

The company also reported more than $112 billion in cash on hand, and said that its revenue in Q2 2026 was more than 13x higher than the same quarter last year.

Some analysts warn that Anthropic might land closer to $1.5 trillion, noting that investors are becoming more discerning about potentially inflated valuations.

"Anthropic is entering an IPO market that is far more challenging than the summer. Investors were not questioning valuations the ⁠same way a few months ago," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs.

SpaceX and Meta are also raising billions to fund AI ambitions

On the same day as Anthropic’s IPO filing, Meta said it was aiming to raise $95 billion via stock sales, and SpaceX announced a $40 billion debt financing deal.

Previously, Meta had indicated that it would seek to raise more money “before even more companies have absorbed available capital” — pointing to competition from Anthropic, SpaceX, and OpenAI. The funds will expand Meta’s infrastructure and compute capacity, according to a press release. And SpaceX, which leases compute to Google, Anthropic, and others, will use its $40 billion in financing to buy Nvidia GPUs, as part of their plans to “deploy the largest compute infrastructure in the world,” according to CFO Bret Johnsen.

OpenAI is racing to raise more capital, too

The makers of ChatGPT aren’t planning to IPO this year. Still, the AI giant is moving quickly to raise around $30 billion in the weeks before Anthropic’s debut, a move that would value OpenAI at around $1.4 trillion. Investors familiar with the company said the accelerated timeline is due to OpenAI’s desire to capture capital from investors that might otherwise focus on Anthropic’s IPO, with SoftBank, Abu Dhabi-based MGX, and other backers potentially joining the round. 

OpenAI is reportedly expecting to reach $70 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2026, and told investors that it can further boost usage of its software through price cuts on cheaper, non-cutting-edge models. 

What does the AI race mean for crypto?

Rising AI adoption will likely bring a number of crypto use cases into the forefront, including AI agent-based commerce and blockchain-based identity. Meta said that on its new AI agent app Muse, the most popular use-case is shopping, and Muse can integrate with Coinbase to make onchain transactions. And since last year, more than 138 million onchain agentic transactions have been logged on x402, the payment protocol for agents incubated by Coinbase, with agents paying for code reviews, research data, gaming, and even for other AI agents. 

As AI agents frequent more corners of the internet, proof of human identity will also become increasingly important in sensitive sectors like finance. World, Sam Altman’s blockchain-based identity startup, has already launched “World ID verification” for financial firms and is partnering with Bain Capital, VanEck Funds, and others to design its product. 

"As AI becomes increasingly prevalent in all aspects of our lives, enterprises are requesting individuals provide 'Proofs' about themselves to help mitigate fraud and increase trust," the company said.