Anthropic has tapped law firm Wilson Sonsini to begin work on one of the largest initial public offerings ever, which could come as soon as 2026, as the artificial intelligence start-up races OpenAI to the public market. The maker of the Claude chatbot, which is in talks for a private funding round that would value it at more than $300bn, chose the US west coast law firm in recent days, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. The start-up, led by chief executive Dario Amodei, had also discussed a potential IPO with big investment banks, according to multiple people with knowledge of those talks. The people characterised the discussions as preliminary and informal, suggesting that the company was not close to picking its IPO underwriters. Nonetheless, these moves represent a significant step up in Anthropic’s preparations for an IPO that would test the appetite of public markets to back the massive, lossmaking research labs at the heart of the AI boom.

Full report : Anthropic taps law firm Wilson Sonsini to begin work on its IPO, which could come as soon as 2026, and held preliminary talks with big investment banks.