21 August 2026

Anthropic prepares IPO as public opposition to AI data centers grows

First reported

AI Breakfast and CNBC ran this on 21 August, all on the same day.

Anthropic held confidential investor meetings in June and expects to go public at a valuation around $2 trillion, potentially exceeding SpaceX's recent $85.7 billion offering.
A Gallup survey found seven in ten Americans oppose building AI data centers in their area, with politicians from both parties now pushing back on development.
Anthropic's CFO fielded investor questions about competition, profit margins under pressure from free open-source models, and risks if data center construction slows.

How it was covered

AI BreakfastIndependent editors

Anthropic told investors it expects its IPO to match or exceed SpaceX's $86.2 billion offering, potentially filing by month-end with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan leading. The company booked $11.6 billion in revenue with $559 million operating profit, making it more attractive than OpenAI which reported $6.7 billion revenue and $12.3 billion operating loss, though the newsletter notes none of these figures are audited.

Reported by CNBC