By Berber Jin, Corrie Driebusch and Kate Clark

Anthropic is meeting with potential investors to shore up confidence in what could be the largest IPO of all time, offering assurances about its rapid pace of growth and strategies it expects will help address a growing public backlash against AI.

The $965 billion artificial-intelligence juggernaut is staring down a host of fresh challenges that are leading investors to take a more critical look at the company's business, including the recent popularity of cheaper AI systems made in China, tensions with the Trump administration and a growing backlash to data-center construction across the U.S.

In recent weeks, investors have pressed Anthropic executives on such topics in pre-IPO meetings, asking them what effect they might have on the company's growth, people familiar with the discussions said. The conversations reflect the tremendous uncertainty that still exists about who will win the AI race and the financial stability of the businesses that underpin it.

Anthropic has recently emerged as the front-runner in that race, powered by the success of its hit coding tool, Claude Code. But there is also a backlash against the company in Silicon Valley, where many chief executives have grown nervous about its power over the AI ecosystem.

The price Anthropic sets, and the company's performance after the initial public offering, will set the stage for how investors value top AI developers. Trillions of dollars in AI spending, most of which is going toward securing computing resources, largely rests on the assumption that demand for the technology will continue to rise precipitously.

Company executives have played down the impact of Chinese competition in meetings, telling investors that Anthropic is hyperfocused on offering cutting-edge AI models, the people said. Chief Executive Dario Amodei and other top U.S. AI leaders have publicly said that most users want the most intelligent AI systems available at any given time, suggesting that Chinese systems are less of a threat since their capabilities generally trail those of top AI models by at least a few months.

Anthropic is targeting a public debut in September or early October, people familiar with its plans said. Its top rival, OpenAI, is now expected to follow in an IPO that could be as late as next year.

In the meetings, Anthropic told some investors that it plans to push further into healthcare and biology AI uses and that the work could help mitigate some of the negative sentiment around AI, people involved in the conversations said. Anthropic hasn't shared its precise pricing plans or timing, the people said.

Anthropic's IPO would come during a banner year for such megadeals, following Elon Musk's SpaceX, which surpassed $2 trillion in trading after its IPO earlier this year. While some bullish analysts and investors expect Anthropic to exceed that, a selloff in SpaceX's shares after an early pop has reminded investors of how turbulent moving from private to public markets can be.

Anthropic pulled ahead of the pack earlier this year when its Claude Code coding tool took off. Anthropic said in May that its run-rate revenue had topped $47 billion earlier that month.

In recent weeks, Anthropic has forged a flurry of new computing deals with the likes of SpaceX and Google. Usage data shows demand for Claude Code and other Anthropic tools has continued to be robust, and the company has faced intermittent outages this year.

Write to Berber Jin at berber.jin@wsj.com, Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@wsj.com and Kate Clark at kate.clark@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 10, 2026 22:30 ET (02:30 GMT)