Anthropic's IPO filing lays out a wide range of risks, from the possibility of catastrophic harm caused by advanced artificial intelligence to chip supply disruptions, mounting infrastructure commitments and regulatory uncertainty.
The company's prospectus contains more than 90 pages of risk factors, highlighting the challenge of balancing its safety-focused approach with commercial expansion. Anthropic warned that if it fails to manage AI safety risks, its brand, business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.
Here are five key risks flagged in the filing.
AI Safety And Existential Risks
Anthropic acknowledged that increasingly capable AI systems could pose catastrophic or existential risks to society if developed or deployed irresponsibly. The company said it regularly makes judgement calls about whether a model is safe enough to release, but cannot guarantee that its safeguards will be adequate or that it will correctly identify capabilities that should be restricted.
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It also warned that the broader AI industry may not adopt similar safety measures, leaving risks that its own approach may not fully mitigate.
Misuse For Weapons And Cyberattacks
Anthropic warned that its models could be exploited for developing weapons, generating fraudulent content, perpetrating violence and conducting sophisticated cyberattacks. Safeguards such as automated classifiers and monitoring systems may be circumvented, outdated or inadvertently disabled. The company said customer verification also varies by access channel, potentially limiting its ability to prevent malicious actors from using its technology.
The filing cited a September 2025 incident in which Anthropic said it detected a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group manipulating its Claude Code tool in an attempted infiltration of roughly 30 global targets, with a limited number of successful intrusions.
Chip Supply And Infrastructure Dependence
Anthropic identified its dependence on advanced chip manufacturing in Taiwan, particularly Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), as a significant vulnerability.
Natural disasters, geopolitical tensions with China, power-grid disruptions and trade restrictions could interrupt chip supplies, affecting the company's operations and financial performance.
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Anthropic also faces substantial long-term computing and infrastructure commitments. Because its revenue is largely consumption-based while many of its infrastructure costs are fixed, slower-than-expected growth could strain liquidity and increase the risk of defaults under financing agreements.
Cloud Providers And Commercial Commitments
Anthropic relies on Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Broadcom for computing infrastructure, creating dependencies and potential vulnerabilities. The company also warned that major cloud providers compete with it through their own AI models. If these providers prioritise their competing products over Anthropic's offerings in pricing, placement, integration or access to computing capacity, its customer adoption and business performance could suffer.
Its long-term spending commitments could compound financial pressure if revenue fails to keep pace.
Regulation And Political Backlash
Anthropic said AI laws and regulations are evolving rapidly across jurisdictions, creating uncertainty around development, deployment and commercial use. Access to critical supplies, electricity and water could also be affected by geopolitical tensions and changing public attitudes towards climate change and data-centre expansion.
The company warned that disagreements over its positions, or its failure to take a position, on political, social, environmental and other sensitive issues could trigger backlash from customers, governments, employees and advocacy groups.
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