Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire: Calls for Anthropic to Boldly Advance IPO
Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire publicly called on Anthropic to complete its initial public offering (IPO) via a post on social media platform X, stating that "taking a bold step" is a net positive for society, citing Circle's own experience of going public on the New York Stock Exchange fifteen months ago as an example.
Allaire acknowledged in his post that there is widespread debate about whether now is the best time for Anthropic to pursue an IPO: market sentiment is tense, the IPO window is crowded, valuation discussions are noisy, and there are real and serious concerns in the industry regarding the safety of such AI technologies. According to previous media reports, Anthropic is preparing for an IPO with a potential valuation of up to $2 trillion and a financing cap of $100 billion; the planned October listing has been postponed to November to showcase third-quarter financial data to potential investors. The company's annualized revenue surpassed $65 billion in July, with investors expecting it to exceed $110 billion by the end of 2026, a significant leap from approximately $9 billion at the end of 2025.
Allaire used Circle's own experience as a comparison: Circle went public on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2025, at a time when the company's stablecoin business was also operating in a complex technological environment with rapidly evolving regulations and high public skepticism. The market generally believed that "staying private and waiting for public opinion to calm down" was the prudent choice. However, Allaire stated that the opposite was true—going public not only did not subject Circle to overwhelming scrutiny but also provided it with a globally recognized framework of trust, including audited financial statements, quarterly disclosures, independent board governance, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance controls, and real-time accountability to millions of shareholders and market regulators.
Allaire further pointed out that the discipline of public markets is only one side of the coin; the other side is clear regulatory rules. For the stablecoin industry, the GENIUS Act provides this regulatory framework, shifting the focus of industry discussions from "whether such technologies should be included in a regulated financial system" to "what standards should be followed within that system." He emphasized that an IPO cannot replace targeted public policy, and regulation cannot substitute for the discipline of public markets; the two are complementary: one makes companies transparent and accountable to investors and the public, while the other establishes obligations, protections, and boundaries, allowing emerging technologies to gain lasting institutional trust.
Allaire believes that the AI industry is currently at a similar critical juncture, with even higher risks. He noted that leading AI companies are becoming core infrastructure for the global economy, with their model capabilities, safety practices, computing power commitments, revenue concentration, and governance structures constituting genuine public interest issues. However, most of this information is currently only visible to a few investors and insiders. He stated that an IPO would force companies to adhere to the strictest disclosure and governance systems established by humanity to date, requiring them to explain risks, dependencies, and decision-making mechanisms, and to provide institutionalized channels for ongoing accountability to the public, policymakers, and markets, rather than relying on sporadic public opinion waves.
From a capital flow perspective, if Anthropic ultimately completes its IPO at the discussed scale, the market generally expects it to become one of the largest public offerings in history, surpassing the previous valuation record set by SpaceX. At that time, institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, and retail funds from the public market will flood into the AI infrastructure sector, with underwriting and pricing led by Wall Street investment banks. In contrast, OpenAI's annualized revenue during the same period is approximately $40 billion, lower than Anthropic's disclosed $65 billion in July. The race between the two companies regarding the timing of their IPOs and their capital market influence objectively forms the commercial backdrop for Allaire's statement—his public endorsement also somewhat supports the entire narrative of the frontier AI industry's public listings, benefiting investment institutions holding relevant primary market shares and waiting for exit windows.
Source: Public Information
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Allaire's own journey and that of Circle's IPO has been fraught with twists and turns. Circle initially announced its plan to go public through a merger with Concord Acquisition Corp via SPAC in 2021, with a valuation that once reached approximately $9 billion; however, due to delays caused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's review process and tightening regulatory environment, this transaction was announced to be terminated by both parties after over a year in December 2022. Subsequently, Circle shifted to a traditional IPO path, officially submitting its listing application to the SEC in January 2024. After several adjustments to the market window, it ultimately completed its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2025, with its first-day stock performance surpassing that of companies like Meta, Airbnb, and Robinhood during their respective IPOs.
From the perspective of capital mobilization logic, Allaire's public support for Anthropic is essentially seeking new application scenarios for the "compliance premium" he has accumulated over the past fifteen months—he attempts to replicate Circle's proven path of "going public for trust" in the higher valuation and higher risk arena of artificial intelligence. The motivation behind this is clear: Circle's core business, the USDC stablecoin, shares the same industry as leading AI companies like Anthropic, which relies on external institutional endorsement for technological legitimacy. Banks, governments, and corporate partners that were previously cautious about stablecoins were willing to reassess the company only after Circle went public, through familiar frameworks like audits and quarterly disclosures. Allaire's statement objectively raises the volume for the entire narrative of "emerging technology compliance listings," and if Anthropic's IPO proceeds as discussed, it will be one of the largest public offerings in history, surpassing the previous valuation record set by SpaceX.
In terms of industry positioning, Anthropic and OpenAI are currently in the same capital racing phase: reports indicate that Anthropic's annualized revenue reached approximately $65 billion in July, higher than OpenAI's approximately $40 billion during the same period, and investors expect Anthropic's revenue to exceed $110 billion by the end of the year. Both companies are reportedly preparing or considering entering the capital market, forming a de facto "Wall Street sprint." This situation bears structural similarities to the concentrated IPO wave of internet giants in the mid-2010s—at that time, the market also engaged in heated debates about whether emerging technology companies had sufficient governance maturity, and ultimately, it was the mandatory disclosure mechanisms of the capital market that drove the establishment of industry standards. Anthropic is currently at a critical point of transition from "private rapid expansion" to "public accountability," and has not yet completed this leap.
This phenomenon essentially belongs to the overlap of "regulatory change" and "capital concentration": on one hand, the GENIUS Act has established a clear regulatory path for the stablecoin industry, shifting compliance standards from ambiguity to clear rules, and this legislative precedent is being referenced as a framework for future AI industry regulation; on the other hand, capital from leading AI companies is accelerating its concentration among a few super-large laboratories—Anthropic's potential $2 trillion valuation and OpenAI's simultaneous IPO efforts mean that the capital and influence of AI infrastructure are becoming highly concentrated among a few companies. The mechanism behind this is that when technological capabilities and capital scales grow exponentially in sync, relying solely on private companies' self-commitments can no longer satisfy the trust needs of the public and regulators; only a mandatory, continuous public market disclosure mechanism can transform this concentration of power into a transparent structure that can be held accountable externally.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
- Private relies on commitment, public relies on systems.
- Regulation sets boundaries, market verifies credibility.
- The more power is concentrated, the more it needs to be publicly priced.