Anthropic is telling investors to value its planned stock market listing based on projected 2028 revenue of roughly $190 billion to $200 billion, according to two people familiar with the company's financials who spoke with Reuters. The pitch represents a striking bet on future growth rather than current performance, asking public-market buyers to price the artificial intelligence firm off numbers nearly three years out. Reuters described the approach as unusual, noting that bankers and investors are applying enterprise value-to-revenue multiples to such distant forecasts because margins remain under pressure from spending on compute resources, model training, and personnel.

The $190 billion to $200 billion target stands against the $47 billion revenue run rate Anthropic disclosed as recently as May, meaning the company is asking investors to underwrite roughly a fourfold expansion over approximately two and a half years. Reuters cited LSEG data showing comparable public firms trading at steep multiples: Palantir at 53 times expected 2026 revenue and Cloudflare at 41.6 times. Even a compressed multiple applied to Anthropic's 2028 projection would imply a valuation in the trillions, Reuters noted. For context, OpenAI recently set its own valuation at $852 billion through a $7 billion employee stock transaction. The Reuters report, sourced to two people familiar with the financials, did not break down how the 2028 figure splits between API, enterprise, and consumer revenue, nor did it detail Anthropic's margin assumptions or the trajectory of compute costs that would support the growth curve.

David Merkel, a principal at Aleph Investments, told Reuters that Anthropic "could" reach a $2 trillion valuation, but he questioned "whether it would stay there over time" and whether AI genuinely generates enough additional productivity to justify such pricing. Reuters also pointed out that Anthropic isn't alone in this approach: backers of Cerebras Systems referenced 2028 revenue expectations ahead of its IPO this year, and SpaceX projections stretched to 2029 before its June listing at a record valuation. The wire noted that the story does not identify which banks are managing the offering or provide a target listing date.

The report frames the dynamic as a shift in what public markets will tolerate: the IPO window is opening for issuers willing to be judged on revenue promises two or three years out, while staying narrow for companies whose story relies on trailing performance. Bankers are pricing deals off forward multiples that far into the future because AI firms are still squeezing margins with heavy capital outlays, leaving little near-term profit to anchor traditional valuations. For anyone tracking AI funding cycles or Anthropic specifically, the implication is that investors are being asked to underwrite growth curves that push IPO math into territory seldom seen before, betting not on what the business delivers today but on a revenue scale the company believes it can reach by late in the decade. The pricing strategy also suggests that AI companies with credible long-term narratives may find receptive buyers even at valuations that would have seemed outlandish under conventional metrics, reshaping how the market weighs risk against the promise of transformative technology. Whether institutional appetite for such forward-looking bets holds firm will depend on how confidently investors believe the sector can convert massive capital investment into equally massive revenue—and whether early movers can defend their positions as competition intensifies across both foundational models and enterprise applications.