Anthropic will list first. As of October 29, 2026, Anthropic has a public S-1 on file to list as ANT on Nasdaq, with a roadshow possible from November 10, while OpenAI has only a confidential draftAnthropic will list first. As of October 29, 2026, Anthropic has a public S-1 on file to list as ANT on Nasdaq, with a roadshow possible from November 10, while OpenAI has only a confidential draft

新手学院/Market Insights/US Stocks & Earnings/Anthropic vs OpenAI IPO: Anthropic Lists First — What's Confirmed and What's Still Rumor

Anthropic vs OpenAI IPO: Anthropic Lists First — What's Confirmed and What's Still Rumor

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Oct 29, 2026

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#Anthropic #Intermediate

Key Takeaways

Anthropic filed its public Form S-1 on October 26, 2026 for a Nasdaq Global Select Market listing under the ticker ANT; OpenAI has filed nothing publicly since its June 8, 2026 confidential submission.
OpenAI is leaning toward waiting until 2027 for its IPO, Bloomberg Law reported, citing the New York Times; its CEO told Fortune in September, "I would say not 2026."
Anthropic's date is still blank, but the roadshow cannot start before November 10, 2026 and the market expects a listing in late November.
The last valuations are company-stated, not IPO valuations: Anthropic $965 billion post-money (May 28, 2026) and OpenAI $852 billion post-money (March 31, 2026); press reports put Anthropic's IPO discussion range at $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion.
Neither company's stock can be bought before a listing, and the rumor ledger below labels every open claim confirmed, denied or still unconfirmed.

Will OpenAI or Anthropic IPO First?

Anthropic will IPO first, because it has a public registration statement and OpenAI does not.

Anthropic filed publicly on October 26, 2026 and applied to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as ANT, with 22 underwriters led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

OpenAI confidentially submitted a draft S-1 on June 8, 2026, said it had not decided on timing, and has filed nothing publicly since.

A public filing has to sit on EDGAR for at least 15 days before a roadshow, so OpenAI trails by rule as well as by statement.

Its CEO told Fortune in an interview published on September 12, 2026 that "right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public" and, asked about the year, "I would say not 2026."

Bloomberg Law reported, citing the New York Times, that OpenAI is leaning toward holding off until 2027, which is consistent with that statement but remains a report.

Anthropic's own June 1 notice made its offering conditional on market conditions and other factors, so "first" is settled in process and open in fact until ANT trades.

How far each company has moved through the IPO process, from company statements and filings.

Anthropic IPO vs OpenAI IPO: The Confirmed Comparison

Anthropic and OpenAI differ on every line of the comparison, and each line below is drawn from a filing or a company statement.

Anthropic

Filing status: confidential draft submitted June 1, 2026; public Form S-1 filed October 26, 2026; no amendment yet as of October 29.
Exchange and ticker: Nasdaq Global Select Market, ANT (application disclosed in the S-1).
Valuation: $965 billion post-money, Series H, May 28, 2026, per the Series H announcement; IPO valuation not set, with press reports putting the discussion at $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion.
Expected timing: roadshow no earlier than November 10, 2026; market expectation of a late-November listing, with Polymarket pricing a listing by November 30 at 88% on October 29.
Underwriters: 22 banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley listed first; JPMorgan reported to lead the retail portion.

OpenAI

Filing status: confidential draft submitted June 8, 2026; no public S-1 on EDGAR as of October 29, 2026.
Exchange and ticker: not disclosed.
Valuation: $852 billion post-money with $122 billion committed, per OpenAI's March 31, 2026 funding announcement; no IPO valuation exists.
Expected timing: none scheduled; the CEO said "not 2026," and a 2027 IPO is reported but not confirmed.
Underwriters: not disclosed.

The confirmed comparison between the two IPO candidates, drawn from filings and company statements.

Why Can You Read One S-1 and Not the Other?

You can read Anthropic's S-1 because the company filed it publicly, and you cannot read OpenAI's because a confidential draft is reviewed privately by the SEC and stays invisible until the company chooses to file.

The SEC's expanded draft registration procedures let a company keep its draft private through the comment process, on the condition that it files publicly at least 15 days before any roadshow.

Anthropic used that window from June 1 to October 26, and OpenAI is still inside it, with its June notice the only company notice about its offering.

What the public filing contains, and how to find each section, is in the guide to where Anthropic's S-1 is and what's inside it.

How Do the Two IPO Timelines Compare?

The two IPO timelines ran in parallel through the first half of 2026 and separated in October, when only one company filed publicly.

September 2, 2025: Anthropic Series F, $13 billion at $183 billion post-money.
October 28, 2025: OpenAI completes its recapitalization, with the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation controlling OpenAI Group PBC and Microsoft holding roughly 27%.
February 12, 2026: Anthropic Series G, $30 billion at $380 billion post-money.
March 31, 2026: OpenAI announces $122 billion committed at an $852 billion post-money valuation.
May 28, 2026: Anthropic Series H, $65 billion at $965 billion post-money.
June 1 and June 8, 2026: Anthropic and then OpenAI confidentially submit draft S-1s.
September 12, 2026: OpenAI's CEO tells Fortune "I would say not 2026."
October 26, 2026: Anthropic files its public S-1 for a Nasdaq listing as ANT.
November 10, 2026: the earliest day Anthropic's roadshow can begin.
Late November 2026: the market's expected window for Anthropic's first trade, not a confirmed date.

Anthropic's price range and listing date will arrive in an amended filing, and OpenAI has no public date at all; the confirmed and expected steps for Anthropic are in the Anthropic IPO timeline.

The two companies' paths to an IPO, with confirmed dates and the one expected window.

Which One Is Actually the Bigger Business?

Anthropic's filed numbers and OpenAI's company statements cannot be compared like for like, because one is a six-month income statement and the other is a monthly figure.

Anthropic's S-1 reports revenue of $16.29 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2026, up from $1.16 billion a year earlier, with a $693 million operating loss for the half and a $974 million operating profit in the second quarter.

Its net loss of $80.7 billion for the half includes about $72.4 billion of non-cash fair-value changes on convertible notes, and its cash and short-term investments stood at $131.7 billion.

OpenAI's March 31, 2026 announcement states $2 billion of revenue per month and more than 900 million weekly active users, which annualizes to roughly $24 billion but is a company statement rather than a filed total.

The two figures also cover different periods, since OpenAI's statement predates the end of Anthropic's reporting period by three months.

The detail behind Anthropic's figures is in the guide to Anthropic's revenue and losses.

What Each Company Has Disclosed About Costs

Anthropic has disclosed its cost base in the S-1, and OpenAI has disclosed no comparable figures, which is the second half of why the two cannot be compared like for like.

Anthropic's filing reports stock-based compensation of $1.2 billion for 2025 and $2.2 billion for the first half of 2026, positive operating cash flow of $3.9 billion for the half, and $141.1 billion of capital raised since founding.

It also discloses multi-year compute commitments of at least $110 billion to Amazon, at least about $114.5 billion to Google and at least $44.9 billion to Microsoft, plus up to $120.5 billion with SpaceXAI through 2029 and about $161.2 billion of equipment leases with Broadcom.

OpenAI's public statements cover its funding, its monthly revenue and its user count, and none of its cost or cash figures appears in any public filing, so any cost comparison between the two is a comparison between a filing and a blank.

How Are the Two Companies Controlled?

Both companies are controlled by something other than their public shareholders, and both structures are disclosed, one in a filing and one in a company announcement.

Anthropic is a Delaware public benefit corporation that has never paid a dividend and does not expect to, and its post-IPO charter splits control three ways: public Class A shares carry one vote each, a single Class T share held by the Long-Term Benefit Trust elects a majority of the board, and a single Class F share held by the founders' LLC carries 50.1% of the votes.

Amazon and Google, the two largest strategic holders, are each expected to own more than 5% after the listing without any voting rights.

OpenAI Group PBC is controlled by the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation since the October 28, 2025 recapitalization, and Microsoft holds roughly 27% on an as-converted diluted basis.

Public buyers of either company would therefore buy economic exposure without control, and the S-1 lists Anthropic's structure among its risk factors for exactly that reason.

Who controls each company, per Anthropic's S-1 and OpenAI's recapitalization announcement.

What's Confirmed, Denied or Still Unconfirmed: The Rumor Ledger

Every claim that has circulated about the two IPOs carries one of four labels below, and the public S-1 moved several of them.

Anthropic lists before OpenAI — Confirmed in process: Anthropic has a public S-1 and an exchange application; OpenAI has neither.
Anthropic lists on Nasdaq — Confirmed: reported in September, confirmed by the S-1 on October 26.
Anthropic lists in October 2026 — Denied by the facts: the October 26 filing and the 15-day rule made it impossible.
Anthropic's IPO valuation is $2 trillion — Still unconfirmed: a reported discussion range of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion, per Yahoo Finance, that only the price range can settle.
Nvidia anchors the Anthropic IPO — Still unconfirmed: reported by Reuters in September; the S-1 summary names no anchor investor.
OpenAI waits until 2027 — Still unconfirmed: reported by the New York Times and relayed by Bloomberg Law; consistent with the CEO's "not 2026," but not a company statement.
OpenAI's finance chief told staff to expect 2027 — Still unconfirmed: a report with no public confirmation.
OpenAI has chosen an exchange or ticker — No basis: nothing has been disclosed, so any symbol or venue is invented.

Each circulating claim about the two IPOs, labeled confirmed, denied or still unconfirmed.

What Could Still Change the Order?

Only two things could change the order: a delay on Anthropic's side or a public filing on OpenAI's.

Anthropic's timing could slip on SEC comments, Nasdaq's approval or market conditions, and its S-1 flags a "novel capital structure" and concentrated voting power as risks that investors will price.

OpenAI could accelerate only by filing publicly, which would start its own 15-day clock, and its latest statements point the other way.

Anthropic's amended S-1: the first document that can confirm the timing, by adding the price range days before the roadshow.
November 10, 2026: the earliest day Anthropic's roadshow can start; a start in that week keeps a late-November listing on track.
A public OpenAI S-1: the only event that could put OpenAI within 15 days of its own roadshow, and nothing suggests one is imminent.
Market conditions: named by Anthropic in June as a condition of the offering, and the one factor that could delay a filed deal without any new document.

OpenAI's recapitalization of October 28, 2025 removed the governance obstacle to a listing, with Microsoft's roughly 27% holding set out in the company's partnership terms.

Microsoft's own 8-K exhibit describes the same stake from its side.

Where Do SpaceX and Databricks Fit in the Same IPO Queue?

SpaceX has already listed, Databricks has not filed, and Anthropic sits between them as the only company with a public registration statement that has not yet traded.

SpaceX sold 638,888,888 Class A shares at $135.00 in June 2026 for about $85.7 billion of net proceeds, the largest IPO on record, and began trading on Nasdaq as SPCX on June 12.

Databricks has filed nothing with the SEC; its August 13, 2026 release reported a $5 billion round at a $190 billion valuation and a revenue run-rate above $7 billion, and its CEO has called 2026 a poor year to list.

The full status of the 2026 mega-IPO lineup, including whether Anthropic's deal could challenge SpaceX's record, is tracked in its own guide.

Can You Buy Anthropic or OpenAI Stock Before the IPO?

No, neither company's stock trades on any exchange, and Anthropic's investor notice treats transfers its board has not approved as void.

Indirect exposure exists through public shareholders, funds that hold Anthropic and pre-IPO products, and on MEXC the ANTHROPICUSDT pre-IPO contract tracks Anthropic's expected valuation without conveying shares and converts into a standard stock futures contract when ANT lists.

The OPENAIUSDT contract works the same way for OpenAI, with no conversion date because no listing is scheduled.

The Anthropic Pre-IPO Countdown page on MEXC tracks the milestones that separate the two companies, from the amended filing to the first trade.

The routes that exist before the listing, including the MEXC Pre-IPO Launchpad, are compared in the guide to buying Anthropic stock before the IPO.

Every other claim about the two IPOs belongs in the rumor ledger until a filing or a company statement moves it, and the guide to how to buy Anthropic stock covers what happens on listing day.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.