AI in action · Investor protection
Anthropic's IPO: Five Share Classes, Unlocks From Day One
Buyers of Anthropic's listed Class A shares will not control the company: its founders hold 50.1% of the vote and a trust elects most of the board. The S-1 filed on October 26 also lets some insiders sell from the first trading day.
The numbers in Anthropic's prospectus had leaked a week earlier, so the public S-1 filed with the SEC on Monday, October 26, mostly confirmed them: revenue of $16.29 billion in the six months to June 30, 2026, against $1.16 billion a year earlier, and a net loss of $80.75 billion, of which $72.39 billion was a change in the fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities and SAFEs rather than cash spent. Anthropic, PBC has applied to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol ANT, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley leading the offering. The price range and the number of shares are still blank. What was new were the pages a buyer of those shares should read before the income statement: who controls the company, and when insiders can sell.
The filing describes five classes of common stock. Class A, the one being sold, carries one vote per share. Class N has the same economic rights but no vote; it is held mainly by strategic business partners and converts into Class A when sold to an unaffiliated third party. Class T belongs to the Long-Term Benefit Trust, a body of financially disinterested trustees, and lets it elect and remove the Class T directors, who will form a majority of the board; it has no economic rights. A single share of Class F goes to a company owned by the seven co-founders, including chief executive Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei, and carries votes equal to 50.1% of the total voting power on matters put to stockholders generally, including the election of the other directors. Class E, for employees, votes only on limited matters. Anthropic says it will be a "controlled company" under Nasdaq's governance rules.
As a public benefit corporation, the company is legally required to balance stockholders' financial interests with those of people materially affected by its conduct and with its stated purpose, "the responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity." Read together, the structure means a Class A buyer gets an economic stake and dividends only if the board declares them, while the board majority answers to the trust and the general vote to the founders. Dual-class shares are common among technology listings; here they are layered three ways.
The lock-up section departs from the usual 180-day freeze. Non-founder directors, officers and certain current and former employees and consultants may sell part of their Class A shares from the first trading day after the prospectus date, with further tranches becoming available on the 27th, 48th, 62nd and 76th days and after the release of full-year 2026 results. For most other holders the restrictions end at the earlier of the 180th day or the second full trading day after the first-quarter 2027 report; certain other stockholders, and the co-founders, are locked for up to 365 days, subject to timed automatic expirations. The percentages attached to each date are not yet filled in. Yahoo Finance noted that SpaceX used a similar early-unlock structure for its June listing.
The market treated the filing as good news: the Nasdaq Composite rose about 0.8% on Monday and the Philadelphia chip index gained 2.8%, Reuters reported. For anyone considering the shares, the useful checks come later, when the final prospectus fills in the blanks: how many shares are sold, by the company and by selling stockholders, and how much stock each unlock date releases. Each of those dates adds supply, and the governance means price is the only decision a Class A buyer gets to make.
Sources: SEC EDGAR — Anthropic, PBC, Form S-1 registration statement (Oct 26, 2026); Yahoo Finance — Anthropic IPO live updates: S-1 filing discloses $16.3B in first-half revenue, plans to list as 'ANT' (Oct 26, 2026); Reuters via MarketScreener — Wall St eyes best day in a month as Anthropic's IPO filing propels AI stocks (Oct 26, 2026)