Anthropic is planning to commit $518 billion to cloud services, computing capacity and other infrastructure over the coming years, according to an IPO prospectus reviewed by Reuters. The massive spending target comes alongside substantial losses, but traders in Anthropic’s pre-IPO perpetual contracts showed only a modest reaction.
The prospectus portrays the investment as a long-term wager that artificial intelligence could reshape the global economy on a scale exceeding the transformations brought by industrialization, electricity and the internet.
The U.S. company, which develops the Claude series of AI models, could pursue a public listing after the November U.S. midterm elections, Reuters reported. The offering could value Anthropic above $2 trillion, more than double the $965 billion valuation from its May financing round.
Spending Plans Come With Heavy Losses
Anthropic’s planned investment comes despite a substantial deficit on its books.
The company reported a $42 billion net loss in 2025. Roughly $34 billion of that total resulted from an accounting charge tied to financing that may eventually be converted into shares, rather than cash consumed by normal business operations.
After excluding write-downs associated with previous fundraising, Anthropic’s operating loss exceeded $8 billion.
The company’s revenue, however, rose 12-fold last year to nearly $4.6 billion. Almost one-quarter of that revenue came from two customers, while Anthropic said many of its biggest clients are not committed under long-term contracts.
Anthropic ended 2025 with $20.28 billion in cash and short-term investments.
Crypto Market Reaction Remains Limited
Anthropic’s pre-IPO perpetual futures were trading near $1,998 on Tuesday, down around 2% over 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. The contracts were still approximately 10% below their Sept. 9 high of $2,211.
These perpetuals allow traders to speculate on Anthropic’s implied valuation before the company becomes publicly traded. Their prices correspond to the company’s expected valuation in trillions of dollars. Based on Binance’s pricing, a contract at $1,998 implies a valuation of roughly $2 trillion, close to Reuters’ reported figure.
Coin Metrics data shows that 12 exchanges offer Anthropic pre-IPO perpetuals, with total open interest above $100 million at the time of writing. Binance represented more than 30% of trading activity.
On Hyperliquid, Entropy’s Anthropic market had about $36 million in open interest.
The contracts do not represent actual shares or give traders an ownership interest in Anthropic. They are cash-settled synthetic derivatives that track the company’s implied valuation rather than its equity ownership.
Compared with perpetual futures tied to bitcoin, ether and other major cryptocurrencies, the Anthropic market remains much smaller and less liquid. Open interest in major crypto derivatives markets routinely reaches billions of dollars.
