Analysis
Anthropic filed to sell up to 552.9 billion yen -- about $3.5 billion -- worth of shares to investors in Japan as part of its planned U.S. public listing, according to a Reuters wire report carried by KFGO, in a filing dated November 2, 2026.
What Anthropic does
Anthropic, founded in January 2021 by seven former OpenAI employees including siblings Daniela and Dario Amodei, is the San Francisco-based maker of the Claude family of large language models, sold through a chatbot, an API and the company's own agent harnesses. It has grown into one of the two AI labs, alongside OpenAI, that investors most often cite when pricing the broader AI infrastructure boom, and its path to a US listing has been closely watched since it filed its S-1 earlier in 2026.
Anthropic's funding history, and what the Japan filing changes
The Japan share sale comes after a run of disclosed financings this year, oldest first:
“Reuters reported that some investors have discussed a valuation around $1.5 trillion for the company -- a figure that is not confirmed in any filing Pulse has reviewed.”
- February 2026 -- $30B round at a $380B valuation, led by Singapore's GIC and Coatue Management, co-led by D.E. Shaw, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, Iconiq and MGX, per Bloomberg Law
- May 2026, Series H -- $65B at a $965B valuation, led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital, co-led by Capital Group, Coatue, D1 Capital, GIC, Iconiq and XN
- For comparison -- OpenAI was valued at $852B in March 2026, a figure Anthropic's May mark already topped, per Bloomberg Law and W.Media
Pulse previously covered Anthropic's expected "junk" credit rating ahead of the IPO; the new Japan filing is the first disclosed detail of how Anthropic plans to structure share sales to international investors once it lists, though the filing itself does not state the total IPO size or a valuation. Reuters reported that some investors have discussed a valuation around $1.5 trillion for the company -- a figure that is not confirmed in any filing Pulse has reviewed.
Who's backing Anthropic going into its IPO
Beyond the lead and co-lead investors named above, Anthropic's roster includes Microsoft, Nvidia, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners from earlier rounds, per Bloomberg Law's February reporting, and CB Insights counts 165 total investors in the company, though several of its more recent entries -- including an August debt round involving Blackstone and an October convertible note involving Amazon, Broadcom and Google -- carry undisclosed or only partially disclosed amounts. That pattern of partially disclosed debt and convertible financing alongside headline equity rounds is itself becoming a feature of how the largest AI labs fund compute spending ahead of an IPO.
What to watch next
Announced is not completed: Anthropic has not priced its IPO, and the Japan filing discloses a share-sale ceiling, not a confirmed deal size. The company's last firm valuation mark, $965 billion from May, already sits well above OpenAI's; whether the market will support a $1.5 trillion figure once the roadshow actually begins remains to be seen, and investors should watch for Anthropic's formal U.S. prospectus for the numbers this Japan filing left out.
