Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is reportedly preparing to present investors with a total addressable market (TAM) exceeding $30 trillion, a figure that surpasses SpaceX's earlier estimate of $28.5 trillion. TAM represents the annual revenue potential a product or service could achieve if it captured 100% market share within its relevant sector. According to sources familiar with the matter, Anthropic's TAM calculation encompasses the full spectrum of work that could potentially be completed through AI models. The company has not yet responded to requests for comment.
This expansive TAM figure serves multiple strategic purposes: it bolsters Anthropic's valuation and massive infrastructure investments, guides product prioritization, maps out the competitive landscape against rivals like OpenAI and Google, and anchors the growth narrative underpinning its planned initial public offering (IPO). Backing this valuation is Anthropic's remarkable revenue acceleration. Internal documents reviewed by investors reveal annualized recurring revenue (ARR) climbed from approximately $9 billion at the end of 2025 to $14 billion in February 2026, $30 billion in April, $47 billion in May, and surpassed $60 billion by July. In the second quarter of 2026 alone, revenue exceeded $11.5 billion—roughly 14 times the $787 million generated during the same period a year earlier.
More critically, the company posted adjusted operating profit of $559 million in the second quarter, marking the first time a leading large language model developer has achieved quarterly operational profitability. Tech giants have already placed substantial bets on Anthropic. Google has invested approximately $3 billion cumulatively, with the book value of its stake exceeding $124 billion by October 2025—a return of roughly 40 times. Amazon has poured in over $13 billion and secured a decade-long deep computing partnership with the company. Microsoft and Nvidia have also joined as investors, with memory chip manufacturers Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix participating in the latest funding round.
Reports indicate Anthropic could list as early as October this year, with a target valuation starting at $2 trillion and some investors anticipating as high as $3 trillion. Should it land at the $2 trillion mark, the IPO would surpass the $1.77 trillion record set by SpaceX in June, making it the largest public offering in global commercial history. To achieve this ambitious goal, Wall Street investment banks are deploying an unconventional "forward-pricing" strategy—skipping current performance metrics entirely and basing the valuation directly on projected revenue of $190 billion to $200 billion expected for 2028. This approach has precedents among recently high-growth companies: Cerebras Systems referenced 2028 revenue expectations in its pre-IPO valuation, while SpaceX extended its revenue projections out to 2029.
In its May IPO filing, SpaceX stated it had identified "the largest actionable TAM in human history," attributing much of it to AI technology. Earlier this month, reports indicated the developer of the Claude chatbot projects 2028 revenue of approximately $190 billion to $200 billion, with its IPO valuation hinging on those performance forecasts. However, Anthropic's $30 trillion TAM claim has drawn market skepticism. Given AI's potential to reshape countless industries, predicting its long-term impact remains exceptionally difficult. These estimates rely heavily on industry data and investment bank models, inherently carrying significant assumptions. David Merkel, head of investment firm Aleph Investments, offered a representative perspective: "Can Anthropic achieve a $2 trillion valuation? It's certainly possible. But I'm curious whether that valuation can hold over time. Can AI truly deliver such massive productivity gains?"