Elyssa Lopez · · 7 min readAnthropic’s trillion-dollar question
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Anthropic wants a trillion-dollar valuation. The enterprises paying its bills aren’t sure AI is worth what they’re already spending.
That tension is what makes the timing of its confidential IPO filing last week so interesting.
Image credit: Ulla
A new BCG survey shows that Asia-Pacific frontline workers lead global AI adoption at work. That’s good news for a company that has captured the majority of the B2B market, outrunning OpenAI.
That positioning has helped Anthropic’s valuation soar, which hit as much as US$900 billion after it raised an additional US$65 billion last month. The IPO could help the company reach a trillion-dollar valuation.
The timing of this filing comes alongside soaring bills for enterprises using AI, which could be a double-edged sword for Anthropic.
On one hand, more revenue is definitely a good thing. On the other hand, more companies are scrutinizing the return on investment they’re getting from AI, especially since Anthropic moved to token-based pricing earlier this year. Uber is the prime example.
Bain and Company reported last week that 40% of about 900 companies it surveyed worldwide saw cost savings from AI deployment of below 10%. They were expecting between 11% and 20%.
The BCG survey also showed that while AI adoption among frontline employees has surged in the past year, organizations are not using the time saved by these staff members to help them do more meaningful work.
While it awaits listing in the US, Anthropic is expanding in Singapore, albeit slower than its rival OpenAI.
The Straits Times reported the San Francisco-based AI lab is hiring four positions in the city-state. In contrast, OpenAI opened up shop in Singapore back in 2024. For a company chasing a trillion-dollar valuation, four job postings in Singapore is a modest regional bet.
If Anthropic’s path to that valuation runs through enterprise software, there’s a highly competitive race in Asia that it has no presence in at all: robotics.
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