Anthropic's Historic IPO Could Hand Wall Street Banks Half a Billion Dollars

A Windfall in the Making

Wall Street's biggest banks are staring down what could be one of the most lucrative paydays in recent memory. Anthropic — the AI company behind the Claude chatbot — has officially filed for a public offering that analysts say could generate a staggering fee pool for its underwriters. And the numbers being thrown around are hard to ignore.

Using the SpaceX IPO fee rate, allocations, and a range of potential proceeds, Evercore ISI analyst Glenn Schorr estimates Anthropic's offering could generate a roughly $562 million equity capital markets fee pool — equal to about 1% of fourth-quarter consensus EPS across the banks he covers. That's not a rounding error. That's a single deal reshaping quarterly earnings for some of the most powerful financial institutions on the planet.

Investment bankers are reportedly aiming for an astronomical listing valuation of roughly $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion. If that target holds, the Anthropic IPO wouldn't just be a big deal — it would be a generational one.

Who Gets the Biggest Slice

Goldman Sachs was named in the coveted lead left position, while Morgan Stanley was named second and will act as the stabilization agent, according to Anthropic's S-1 filing. Those top spots come with top-dollar rewards. In Schorr's base case, co-lead underwriters Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley would each haul in $112 million in fees, while Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan would each rake in $84 million.

Other banks participating in the share float include Barclays, Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, RBC Capital Markets, UBS Investment Bank, BMO Capital Markets, BNP Paribas, Jefferies, Mizuho, and several others. A total of 22 banks appear on Anthropic's IPO tombstone, an advertisement recognizing the investment banks and other financial firms helping take the company public. In other words, the fee bonanza spreads wide — but the lion's share flows to the top two.

Lead banks in an IPO typically manage the underwriting syndicate, the marketing process, and decide which investors receive shares — responsibilities that justify the premium they collect. The blueprint here closely mirrors the SpaceX deal earlier this year. Banks on the SpaceX IPO shared a $500 million flat fee equating to 0.58% of the amount raised, with Goldman and Morgan Stanley each collecting $100 million, the most of those involved.

Anthropic's Financials: Explosive Growth, Massive Losses

The company going public is unlike most. Anthropic's first-half 2026 revenue surged to $16.3 billion from $1.1 billion a year earlier, according to its prospectus — but the filing also discloses an $80.7 billion first-half net loss, a strong signal of aggressive AI spending in the years ahead. That combination of breathtaking growth and breathtaking losses will define how investors ultimately price the stock.

In its Form S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Anthropic said it plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "ANT." Anthropic closed its last funding round in May, when it raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation. The jump from that private valuation to the rumored $1.5–$2 trillion IPO target will be a key point of scrutiny for institutional investors deciding whether to buy in.

The Stakes for Wall Street

Morgan Stanley posted record second-quarter equity trading revenue and higher underwriting fees earlier this year, but SpaceX has since fallen below its offering price, putting the durability of the IPO pipeline in question. That context matters. Banks need Anthropic's debut to go smoothly — not just for the fee income, but to restore confidence that the mega-IPO market can sustain its momentum.

There's also a broader competitive dynamic at play. Goldman is narrowly behind Citigroup for the top spot in the global IPO league table this year. A blockbuster Anthropic listing could flip those rankings and cement Goldman's dominance heading into 2027. For Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and the rest of the syndicate, the stakes are nearly as high. A successful Anthropic IPO won't just pad this quarter's earnings — it will signal that the AI era is officially open for public business.