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The biggest AI listing yet is about to make two Gulf states richer, and highlight the deal Saudi Arabia never got into.
Anthropic, the US company behind the Claude chatbot, is seeking a valuation of about $1.4 trillion in its initial public offering, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. It would be the first frontier AI lab to go public.
The deal
The company and its co-founders aim to raise as much as $90.4 billion through the IPO and a private placement. The base offering alone would raise up to $64.4 billion, with shares marketed at $70 to $78 each.
Anthropic is selling 801.4 million new shares, while existing backers are selling 23.6 million.
The Gulf winners
Qatar Investment Authority, the emirate's wealth fund, invested in a $13 billion round in 2025 that valued Anthropic at $183 billion. It has backed the company in later rounds too.
Abu Dhabi tech investor MGX joined a $30 billion round in February and the $65 billion round in May. At about $1.4 trillion, those stakes have grown many times over in under two years.
The Saudi angle
Saudi money is missing. In 2024, as bankers lined up new investors, Anthropic ruled out taking Saudi funds, citing national security, CNBC reported at the time. It later opened its doors to Qatar and the UAE.
Riyadh went its own way. PIF launched Humain in 2025 to build a home-grown AI business, and Aramco this month completed a deal to take 49% of it, putting in about $2.6 billion in cash this year.
Saudi companies still use the technology. Riyadh-based Velents became the first Arab member of Anthropic's Claude partner network in June.
Why it matters
The listing is a test of two Gulf strategies. Qatar and Abu Dhabi bought into Silicon Valley's leaders and are about to book large paper gains. Saudi Arabia is betting it can build its own champion, a slower and costlier route that has yet to prove itself.
What to watch
The final IPO price and first-day trading, and whether a $1.4 trillion valuation pushes Humain to seek outside investors on similar terms.
