The artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic has published the mandatory documents ahead of its highly anticipated debut on the United States stock market.
The 335-page document includes new information about how the company that owns the Claude chatbot generates revenue, what it spends money on, and who controls it.
Anthropic also presented a series of risks that, according to the company, AI technology entails, including the possibility that it could cause loss of human lives. This information is presented alongside the numerous benefits that the technology could bring.
BBC highlights five important aspects worth noting from the published documents.
1. Apocalypse, an occupational hazard
All publicly listed companies must explain to potential investors what could go wrong.
In Anthropic's case, the "risk factors" section is unusual because it also reveals how the AI technology the company develops could endanger all of humanity.
"Artificial intelligence systems advanced enough could, if not developed, implemented, and operated with adequate protection, supervision, and security measures, generate catastrophic or existential risks to humanity," Anthropic stated.
The company mentioned that less than a year ago, a group of hackers believed by Anthropic to be supported by China "manipulated" the Claude chatbot to successfully penetrate the systems of several institutions. These included major technology companies, financial institutions, chemical industry companies, and government agencies.
However, Anthropic specified that its success depends on the ability to "constantly develop, improve, and deploy the most advanced, efficient, and useful artificial intelligence models."
One of the most important risks to this ability is Anthropic's access to the necessary infrastructure, including computing chips and data centers, to build, train, and operate the models underlying its technology.
2. The company is losing money at an accelerated pace
Anthropic has not yet announced the target price of its shares for the stock market listing.
The company is expected to debut on the stock market with a valuation of $2 trillion or even more, which would make the listing the largest in history. However, the value will largely depend on its financial performance.
Anthropic recorded losses of $80.7 billion in the first half of this year, twice as large as the combined losses for the entire year 2025.
The company's total revenues reached $16.2 billion in six months. Although these are growing rapidly, Anthropic still has a long way to go before reaching the break-even point.
Troy Hooper, co-head of the equity capital markets department at Mergermarket, said that Anthropic's revenue growth rate is "exceptional." However, investors are "less forgiving" with tech firms promising huge future gains than they were even a few months ago, he added.
Anthropic's debt situation is also unclear, given that the firm records a very large volume of accounting expenses associated with certain forms of investments.
"Therefore, investors do not yet have a clear picture of Anthropic's fundamental profitability or the extent to which the company's cash-generating ability is sufficient to support its operations as it expands," Hooper added.
3. Fortunately, the company has substantial financial reserves
Despite the losses, Anthropic has very large sums of money at its disposal.
Of the total $131.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents, almost the entire amount is classified as "working capital," meaning it can be used to finance the company's current operations.
Currently, Anthropic has more money than Meta and Google combined.
The company's costs could increase as it faces fierce competition from other AI giants to attract the best specialists and gain access to computing power.
Just renting data centers has cost the company $321.4 billion so far this year.
Hooper said he expects these high costs to continue rising. Even with such large financial reserves, the company will not be able to sustain the growth rate of its business indefinitely using only available cash.
Investors in Anthropic "will pay for future dominance, not for current economic performance," he said.
4. Anthropic depends on a few major clients
Anthropic believes there are numerous opportunities to sell its technology to customers.
However, much of its current business comes from only 250 major corporate clients, each of whom the company says paid at least $10 million in the past year.
An even smaller group, consisting of only five corporate clients, generates a quarter of the company's current business.
Michael Monaghan, portfolio manager at Founder ETF, pointed out that "many of Anthropic's top clients do not have long-term contracts."
This concentration of business means Anthropic depends on a small portion of paying clients to support its growth, without any guarantee that the situation will continue.
Anthropic also has business relationships with companies like Google and Amazon, who are both investors in the firm and its competitors. This could create conflicts of interest in the future, Monaghan noted.
Anthropic stated that the total number of corporate clients has rapidly increased from about 1,500 last year to nearly 12,000 this year.
Part of the growth strategy involves offering Claude's tools for free before trying to "convert these users into paying customers over time."
According to the company, this strategy has made Claude achieve "the fastest adoption in the corporate environment of any technology in history."
5. Artificial intelligence promises "extraordinary" benefits for humanity
Despite all the risks that, according to Anthropic, artificial intelligence entails, the company reiterated its belief that the technology will bring "extraordinary" benefits.
"Fulfilling our mission means that the world will benefit from the enormous advantages of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, while the most significant risks will be reduced," the company said.
Anthropic's mission is defined as follows: "The responsible development and maintenance of advanced artificial intelligence, for the long-term benefit of humanity."
"We do not pursue projects just because they offer commercial opportunities or present research novelties; our efforts must contribute to fulfilling our mission."
Potential benefits include advances in health, such as the development of personalized treatments for various conditions and improved disease detection, as well as education tailored to individual needs, personalized legal advice, and optimization of electrical grids and batteries.
Decades of scientific progress could be compressed into just a few years, accelerating drug discovery, disease diagnosis, and the development of personalized therapies.
Anthropic stated that artificial intelligence could provide education tailored to each individual, as well as specialized financial and legal advice. It could also help improve the efficiency and reliability of electrical grids and batteries and assist developing countries in strengthening their technological capabilities.
"Ultimately, we believe that cutting-edge artificial intelligence will help stimulate global economic growth," the company said.