Anthropic is going all out for the "IPO of the century" and is reportedly close to finalizing US$15 billion in credit financing

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Anthropic PBC is close to finalizing an expansion of its revolving credit line to $15 billion, people familiar with the matter said, clearing a hurdle for the artificial intelligence (AI) company before it publicly files for a high-profile IPO. Morgan Stanley will lead the effort, with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citi also playing key roles in the credit facility. The media also previously reported that these four banks are also the main underwriters of the IPO transaction.

Informed sources also revealed that the Claude chatbot developer hopes to raise funds through this IPO to reach or even exceed SpaceX.

Currently, Anthropic is planning an IPO later this year. Its valuation is expected to reach US$2 trillion, which is expected to exceed the record of approximately US$1.77 trillion set by SpaceX in June 2026. Anthropic is currently developing well and is expected to achieve annualized revenue of more than $65 billion, an increase of more than seven times compared with the growth rate at the end of last year.

Barclays and Wells Fargo are also expected to play important roles in the loan, people familiar with the matter said. They also said Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada and UBS Group AG were also significant participants in the credit facility. Generally speaking, in a syndicated loan, the higher the bank's commitment, the higher the fees the borrower pays the bank.

Bank of Montreal, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Mizuho Financial Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Toronto-Dominion Bank are also included in the so-called revolving credit plan, people familiar with the matter said.

Anthropic is reportedly asking the most active banks leading the credit line to provide approximately $1.25 billion in loans each, encouraging the next tier of active banks to provide approximately $1 billion in loans, while for less participating banks, the committed loan amount will drop to approximately $750 million or even lower.

However, people familiar with the matter said that the details of the loan may still change.

The artificial intelligence developer's rush to go public gives it a chance to follow the lead of companies like SpaceX. SpaceX expanded its revolving credit line to $5 billion from a previous $1.5 billion a month before its record-setting IPO, according to the prospectus. The lineup of banks participating in the SpaceX IPO is basically the same as that of this IPO.

Occupying an important position in large-scale IPO projects not only means receiving a higher commission share than other banks, but also improving the bank's ranking on the leaderboard. JPMorgan tops Bloomberg's 2026 ranking of U.S. equity offerings, in part due to its participation in SpaceX's record $86.2 billion IPO, which included over-allotments.

The race for artificial intelligence has stimulated the IPO market. Data compiled by Bloomberg show that U.S. IPO financing reached $160.6 billion this year, excluding special purpose acquisition companies and other financial instruments. Data shows that this is the highest amount of financing in a single year since 2021.