According to a Reuters report on September 11, Anthropic is in discussions with NVIDIA to bring the chip giant on board as a cornerstone investor for its initial public offering (IPO). NVIDIA is considering investing up to $10 billion in Anthropic’s IPO. Cornerstone investors are typically institutional investors that commit to subscribing for a specific portion of shares before the IPO is offered to the public, providing early endorsement for the listing.
On September 11, Reuters cited two informed sources stating that Anthropic is in discussions with $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ NVIDIA to bring the chip giant on board as a cornerstone investor for its IPO. NVIDIA is considering investing up to $10 billion in Anthropic's IPO.
The fundraising scale of this listing could reach up to $100 billion, with the company's valuation expected to hit $2 trillion, potentially making it the largest IPO in history.
Anthropic had originally planned to publicly file its prospectus as early as next week, but it is now expected to be delayed until late September. Following the disclosure of the prospectus, the IPO roadshow is scheduled to begin as early as mid-October, with the final listing date potentially falling just a few days before the U.S. midterm elections in November.
Cornerstone investors are typically institutional investors who commit to subscribing to a specific portion of shares before an IPO is offered to the public, providing early endorsement for the listing. As mega-IPOs become increasingly common, securing institutional investors in advance has become standard practice.
NVIDIA has previously played a similar role. The list of cornerstone investors for chip designer Arm during its IPO included both NVIDIA and Amazon, while Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) was one of the cornerstone investors for SpaceX.
For Anthropic, bringing in NVIDIA, a well-capitalized strategic investor, would not only bolster market confidence but also further strengthen the deep integration between the two parties in terms of computing power supply.
Rapidly rising valuations supported by revenue growth fuel high expectations
Anthropic's valuation has surged significantly over the past few months.
In May this year, the company's post-money valuation stood at $96.5 billion following a financing round; if this IPO proceeds at a $2 trillion valuation, it would mean the valuation more than doubles in a short period.
Rapid revenue growth is key to supporting valuation. Anthropic stated that its annualized revenue run rate climbed from approximately $9 billion at the end of 2025 to over $65 billion by the end of July this year.
The company’s internal forecast for 2028 revenue is approximately $190 billion to $200 billion, and the final valuation will depend to some extent on whether these expectations are met.
Compute Binding: Building Multi-Layer Supply Relationships with Tech Giants
Anthropic relies heavily on NVIDIA GPUs while actively seeking to diversify its chip supply sources, as surging demand for its Claude model has strained existing compute capacity.
The company’s major investors are also its core compute suppliers. In April this year, Anthropic announced it would invest over $100 billion in Amazon AWS over ten years and adopt more than one million Amazon Trainium2 chips. Meanwhile, the company reached agreements with Google and Broadcom to add several gigawatts of TPU compute capacity.
Regarding cooperation with NVIDIA, in November 2025, NVIDIA announced it would invest up to $10 billion in Anthropic as part of a broader strategic partnership. Under this framework, Anthropic committed to purchasing $30 billion worth of Microsoft Azure compute power powered by NVIDIA chips.
Despite deepening collaborations with NVIDIA, Amazon, and Google, Anthropic continues to strive for greater control over its hardware costs.
Reportedly, the company is forming an internal team dedicated to designing chips customized for the Claude model, aiming to reduce reliance on external suppliers and build stronger autonomous capabilities in compute infrastructure.
Edited by Jeffy