Anthropic Faces Cloud Constraints as It Prepares IPO

Anthropic is confronting growing constraints on computing infrastructure and mounting investor scrutiny as the artificial intelligence company prepares for a potential initial public offering in November 2026. A leaked registration filing, reported by The Wall Street Journal and discussed by TechCrunch on October 20, outlines challenges securing cloud capacity, substantial financial losses, and potential liability for harmful AI behavior.

According to the leaked filing, Anthropic expects to spend more than $750 billion on cloud contracts, including agreements still under negotiation. The company relies on infrastructure from Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft, but increasing competition between these cloud providers and Anthropic is complicating its efforts to secure sufficient computing resources.

Anthropic has also been leasing its own data centers and working with third-party operators. However, the filing raises concerns about the reliability of those operators because of their limited operating histories, contrasting them with established hyperscale cloud providers.

The filing also highlights significant financial exposure. According to The Wall Street Journal's account, Anthropic recorded an $80.7 billion net loss in the first half of 2026 while generating $16.3 billion in revenue over the same period. Two customers accounted for approximately one-fifth of the company's sales, indicating a concentration of revenue among a small number of clients.

Anthropic's disclosures further warn that the company could face damages arising from harmful AI behavior that exceed its available insurance coverage. The filing adds to previously reported disclosures concerning catastrophic risks associated with its technology.

Despite those challenges, Anthropic has reported rapid revenue expansion. The company told prospective investors last week that third-quarter revenue reached $16.8 billion, a 45% increase from the previous quarter. However, the latest figures have also prompted questions about whether its growth can sustain investor expectations.

In a Sunday note cited by CNBC, 22V Research analyst Dauvin Peterson questioned the slowdown in revenue growth and the company's ability to maintain its expansion amid pricing pressure in the large language model market.

"More questions than answers emerged around the reasons for revenue growth deceleration in September and whether Anthropic can grow revenue at the rate the market is expecting given dynamics such as [large language model] pricing pressure," wrote Dauvin Peterson, an analyst at 22V Research.

Peterson also addressed investor expectations for Anthropic's potential public-market valuation, which had come under pressure following the latest disclosures.

"At the end of the day, the revised IPO valuation range starting at $1.5T vs the prior expectation of at least $2T was viewed as disappointing and added fuel to the fire for the AI-related equities that were already under pressure," wrote Peterson.

Anthropic's anticipated offering has become particularly significant as other major private technology companies reconsider their public-market timelines. CNBC reported on October 19 that Anthropic was the only major company among 23 tracked on the prediction market platform Kalshi with a greater-than-50% implied probability of officially announcing an IPO in 2026. Its probability stood at 75% on Monday morning.

OpenAI, Anthropic's main rival, had a 3% probability of going public in 2026 after CEO Sam Altman ruled out an offering that year, according to CNBC. The report said Altman had cited concerns about AI safety when discussing the timing of a public listing.

Other prospective offerings have also become less likely. Plaid's probability of going public in 2026 had fallen to 10%, while payroll and human resources platform Deel stood at 3%. Databricks had a 1% probability, according to the same prediction market data.

Meanwhile, Renaissance Capital data cited by CNBC showed that the number of US IPOs priced in 2026 was down 33% from 2025, despite a sharp increase in total proceeds driven by large offerings, including SpaceX's June debut.

Anthropic confidentially filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in early June, according to CNBC. The company is reportedly targeting a November IPO, although its cloud infrastructure requirements, financial performance, and valuation expectations remain central issues as it approaches a potential public listing.