Anthropic plans Nasdaq IPO with multi-class shares built to keep founders in charge

Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude models, is heading to the public markets. Its plan uses a layered share structure that divides voting rights and board control across separate classes of stock.

The company submitted its Form S-1 registration statement to the SEC on October 26, 2026. It is seeking to list Class A common stock on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ANT.” A debut is planned for mid-November, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley leading the offering.

The IPO is anticipated to rank among the largest in history.

Four doors, different keys

The research summary of the filing refers to five classes. The arrangement is deliberately complex.

Class A is the common stock set to trade on Nasdaq. It is the share most public investors will actually buy.

Class F carries 50.1% of voting power. That is a majority, and it is the piece of the structure that lets Anthropic’s seven co-founders keep substantial authority over corporate decisions after outside money arrives.

Class N is held by Amazon and Google, two of Anthropic’s biggest backers. These shares are non-voting.

The numbers behind the filing

Revenue for the first half of 2026 came in at $16.3 billion. That is a 1,258% increase from a year earlier.

The same period produced a net loss of $80.7 billion. That figure is enormous, but the research attributes it mainly to non-cash adjustments tied to convertible notes.

Anthropic recorded its first profit in Q2 2026, which the research describes as an operating profit.

Anthropic’s May 2026 funding round valued it at $965 billion.

Why the structure looks the way it does

Anthropic is organized as a Delaware public benefit corporation. That legal form lets a company weigh a stated public mission alongside shareholder returns, rather than optimizing for profit alone.

The research frames the multi-class setup as an extension of that idea. The goal is to protect the founders and the mission, while balancing shareholder economics against what the company sees as a need for long-term oversight of AI-related risks.

The non-voting Class N shares held by Amazon and Google fit the same logic. Strategic backers get economic exposure. They do not get a hand on the wheel through those holdings.

What this means for investors and the AI market

For anyone weighing the Class A shares, the trade-off is unusually explicit. Buyers would be getting exposure to one of the fastest-growing revenue stories in tech. They would also be accepting that a small group holding Class F stock controls the outcome of major votes.

The research flags exactly this tension, noting that the structure may frustrate public investors who want influence over governance.

The research points to significant operating expenses and infrastructure commitments that investors will scrutinize after the listing.

According to the research, Anthropic’s performance as a public company could shape investor sentiment toward AI businesses more broadly. That comes at a time the research describes as marked by rising interest rates and market volatility.