AI giant Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, announced Monday that it had filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO), as Silicon Valley AI companies look to raise the enormous sums needed to fuel the sector's rapid expansion.

A confidential filing lets a company submit its IPO paperwork to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for review without making its financials and business details public until much later in the process.

"This gives us the option to go public after the Securities and Exchange Commission completes its review," the company said in a statement. "The proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors."

"The number of shares to be offered and the price have not yet been set," the company added.

The filing came just days after the company said it raised $65 billion in a new funding round that valued the OpenAI rival at $965 billion, confirming its place as one of the most significant players in AI.

Anthropic's valuation puts it ahead of OpenAI, which was valued at $852 billion in March and is also aiming to go public, with a filing expected imminently.

Founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei and other former executives at OpenAI, Anthropic has positioned itself as a safety-focused alternative in the AI race.

Deal with Musk

Anthropic's Claude Code, a popular coding assistant, has helped drive its projected annual revenue to $47 billion.

The company has struggled to meet demand for computing power amid chip and server shortages, prompting deals with Amazon, Google and Broadcom. Last month, it struck a $1.25 billion-per-month agreement with Elon Musk to lease his underused Colossus data centers in Memphis.

Anthropic and OpenAI's IPOs would likely follow Elon Musk's SpaceX, which could begin trading as early as June 12 with a $1.75 trillion valuation.

"We believe this represents an opening of the floodgates for the IPO market, which has been relatively dormant for a few years," said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

Anthropic's filing comes amid a dispute with the Pentagon, after the Defense Department flagged Anthropic as a supply chain risk for refusing military access to its AI models – a move the company called unconstitutional retaliation.

(With input from AFP)