One of the history defining IPOs is about to hit the market. 

Anthropic (proposed ticker: ANT) haș fired the starting gun in its phenomenal journey into public hands, a mere five years after its founding. 

“For the first time in history,” begins the 333-page prospectus, “intelligence is something humans can build. The cognitive capability to reason, analyze, synthesize, decide, and create is producible at scale and accessible on demand.”

Simply, Anthropic has re-created - artificially - what human brains could do without creating whole human beings. In the quest to further its ambitions, Anthropic seeks to raise up to $100 billion in this gargantuan IPO.

“We believe that Powerful AI,” adds Anthropic, “a highly capable and impactful form of frontier AI characterized by the following key attributes, will become widely available within a few years."

For the first time in decades, a large swathe of human professional activities are being made redundant by AI. This scary trend is already rolling out in earnest. 

Microsoft (MSFT), one of the most profitable Big Techs, has proposed this week to buyout 60,000 workers. Its share price bounced. So this tells you the market logic these days.

And nearly all companies are forced to keep up with the rapidly advancing AI. Either they utilise the technology to their advantage, or risk falling further behind in the tech race. 

According to Anthropic’s prospectus, 250 customers spent $10 million each on its products, while another 1,900 each pay $1 million for accessing its models. 

Once customers fully integrate Claude Code into their business systems, chances are they will be locked on to Anthropic’s platform for some time. 

Thus, given Anthropic’s huge growth prospects, locked-in potential, and cutting-edge AI models, investors are valuing the five-year old firm at a staggering $1.5-2.0 trillion. Once listed, Anthropic will surely be a top-10 firm by market value.

So is Anthropic the new Microsoft of our generation and worth buying in at any price?

Why Anthropic IPO differs from Microsoft and why its share trajectory will be volatile

Here are my reasons.

One, Anthropic, unlike Microsoft, is deeply unprofitable. In the first six months of 2026, Anthropic’s Net Loss totalled $80 billion, from a revenue stream of only $16 billion. (Contrast this with Microsoft’s 1986 IPO which stated its net income as $24 million.) Potential equity dilution or debt enlargement later should not be ruled out. 

Two, Anthropic faces immense competition, especially from low-cost China. Remember the ‘Deep Seek’ moment last year? The swift ability of its Asian rivals to replicate Anthropic’s models - via ‘distillation’ - is not to be underestimated. In Microsoft’s case, its formidable competitors only emerged much later.

Three, the urgent need to invest in computer hardware known as ‘AI Infrastructure Buildout’ is immense. This drains critical financial resources from many tech companies, Anthropic included. 

In the next 5-7 years, for example, ANT is set to pay $475 billion in compute-related agreements. This is huge - and unlike Microsoft's earlier business model where it was completely debt free and churning out profits at a good rate.

Four, when Microsoft was listed in 1986 it was a small tech stock with a market value of only $780 million. After a 100x gain, MSFT market value was only $78 billion.

In contrast, Anthropic is currently valued $2 trillion in its IPO. The potential gain here is much lower than Microsoft's 1986 IPO.

The last point I wish to make from ANT’s listing this: Tech equity offerings are swelling over a short time span. This may weigh on equity prices. After all, supply and demand are still the ultimate price dictator.

Meta (META), for example, raised another $95 billion this week from investors to invest in AI. Its stock price sagged (Chart 2) Not to forget OpenAI’s IPO is still waiting in the wings. 

The capacity for a market "indigestion" over these mammoth equity offerings is not to be dismissed.

Look at SpaceX (SPCX) post IPO trajectory. Prices slumped 50% shortly after its IPO. (Chart 3)

In conclusion Anthropic’s IPO is generating immense market interest over the short term. Good short-term trading returns may happen. But remember that ANT is a highly-valued IPO. Its share prices are likely to be highly volatile in the months to come.