Artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic is reportedly pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) with a target valuation of $2 trillion (approx. 2,780 trillion won).

Citing sources, The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 21st (local time) that Anthropic's underwriting banks recently discussed plans with potential investors to raise over $100 billion (approx. 139 trillion won).

During this process, Anthropic's corporate value could reportedly be assessed at up to $2 trillion.

If the listing succeeds as planned, it will set a record for the largest IPO of all time.

The existing record is held by Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX, which went public in June.

At the time of its listing, SpaceX was recognized with a corporate value of $1.77 trillion (approx. 2,457 trillion won) and raised $85.7 billion (approx. 119 trillion won).

Previously, Anthropic was recognized for a corporate value of $900 billion (approx. 1,250 trillion won) during a private fundraising round earlier this year.

Analysts attribute the surge in Anthropic's valuation to its steep revenue growth.

Last month, Anthropic's annualized revenue, calculated by converting its monthly revenue on a 1-year basis, surpassed $65 billion (approx. 90 trillion won).

This represents more than a sevenfold increase in just seven months from $9 billion (approx. 12.5 trillion won) at the end of last year.

Additionally, the company's actual revenue for the second quarter of this year reportedly reached $11.6 billion (approx. 16.1 trillion won).

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by CEO Dario Amodei and others who formerly worked at OpenAI.

Although it was evaluated for a while as lagging behind OpenAI, its revenue skyrocketed as its coding AI program "Claude Code" gained popularity.

Anthropic reportedly explained to investors that, as the performance of its AI models is expected to continuously improve, it can maintain high service prices despite price cuts by competitors.

However, investors are paying attention to whether Anthropic will be able to maintain high service prices amid the proliferation of relatively inexpensive "open weight" AI models.

Securing sufficient data centers, semiconductors, and electricity required to meet the demand for AI services is also cited as a challenge.

Anthropic is expected to make its IPO prospectus public within weeks and go public within months.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)