Anthropic’s implied private-market valuation has reached $1.17 trillion, according to the NYSE OpenVC Unicorn Index as of Sept. 2, exceeding the $965 billion valuation assigned in the company’s latest funding round by roughly 21%. David Shapiro, founder and CEO of OpenVC, told Benzinga that buyers are paying more for Anthropic shares ahead of an anticipated initial public offering, rumored to value the company at about $2 trillion. Demand is being driven by secondary funds, family offices and venture investors seeking exposure before public trading begins, while many existing shareholders are unable or unwilling to sell. Investors are also betting that Anthropic will become a leader in enterprise coding and agentic AI, systems designed to perform tasks with limited human intervention. The company’s reported revenue growth from adoption of its Claude AI models and its position among a small group of leading frontier AI companies have strengthened the investment case. However, private-market prices also reflect the scarcity of available shares and expectations that may not hold after an IPO. At the current valuation, investors are assuming continued rapid growth and improving operating leverage as Anthropic scales. The company’s heavy spending on computing infrastructure and model development makes profitability and long-term frontier-AI economics central to its eventual public-market valuation. A public offering priced below $1.17 trillion could eliminate the scarcity premium paid by private investors.