Anthropic warns of 'catastrophic risk' to humankind ahead of blockbuster share listing

Image source, Getty Images By Rachel Clun , Business reporter , Liv McMahon , Technology reporter and Kali Hays , Technology reporter Published 26 October 2026, 13:27 GMT Updated 3 minutes ago Anthropic has warned artificial intelligence (AI) could pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity" as it unveiled details of its planned blockbuster stock market listing in the US.

The firm's valuation is expected to exceed that of SpaceX, which was the biggest-ever listing at an initial valuation of about $1.8 trillion in the summer.

Anthropic has not yet disclosed the number of shares to be released, their price range, or a date for the listing.

The Claude chatbot developer reported $16.3bn (£12.2bn) of revenue in the first half of the year, with losses of more than $80.7bn.

Anthropic, which said it will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ANT, will be the first fully AI-focused company to go public, making it a test case for the future of the technology.

In a filing ahead of its listing, Anthropic said concerns had been raised by policymakers, regulators and researchers as well as by people within its organisation that AI systems posed a significant risk to humanity.

It said advanced AI systems "could, if not developed, deployed, and operated with appropriate safeguards, oversight, and security measures, pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity, particularly if such systems were misused, replicated, weaponised, or allowed to operate with a high degree of autonomy".

Anthropic was founded five years ago by chief executive Dario Amodei, his sister Daniela Amodei and five others, and announced its intention to go public in June.

Its main rival, OpenAI, quickly followed suit. That listing is now expected to occur early next year, according to a person familiar with OpenAI's plans.

Those announcements were followed by a wave of cyber-security and other technological breaches involving their AI agents - bots designed to operate somewhat autonomously.

Current and former staff of both companies also warned AI technology was being developed without the ability to protect humanity from possible future harms enacted by AI tools.

As Anthropic revealed its stock debut plans on Monday, the owners of the rights to Elvis Presley's music sued the AI firm accusing it of using hundreds of the rock-and-roll star's songs to train its chatbot Claude.

In Anthropic's new documents, it reiterated promises it has made in the past to develop AI in a way that is beneficial to people, while at the same time warning investors of its dangers.