What We Learned About Anthropic's Business | Hard Fork

Anthropic, one of the world leaders in A.I. and the company behind Claude, released its S-1 filing this week, providing the clearest view yet into the business side of the A.I. boom and setting the stage for what could be the largest initial public offering in history. We speak to Erin Griffith, a tech reporter at The New York Times, about what Anthropic's I.P.O. means for the tech industry, the economy and maybe even the long-term future of humanity. Then we’re joined by the tech reporter Mike Isaac and the writer Jasmine Sun to break down the rest of this week’s tech news, including the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, a new round of cybersecurity worries and Microsoft’s offer of buyouts to 60,000 employees. 00:00 Intro 01:30 Anthropic's I.P.O. prospectus and why the stakes are so high 20:35 The biggest tech news stories of the week Additional Reading Anthropic Reveals Skyrocketing Growth and Spending Plans in I.P.O. Filing https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/26/technology/anthropic-ipo-finances.html What’s Riding on Anthropic’s Market Debut? Nearly Everything. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/26/technology/anthropic-going-public-stakes.html Anthropic’s I.P.O. Prospectus Spells Out a Future of Promise and Peril https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/26/technology/anthropic-ipo-s1-dario-amodei.html Why Anger About Data Centers and Energy Prices May Not Swing Votes https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/business/energy-environment/ohio-election-gas-prices.html What Is PHP? Why Are Government and Business Websites Going Offline? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/22/technology/what-is-php-vulnerability-risks.html Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Employees as It Spends on A.I. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/26/technology/microsoft-buyouts-ai-spending.html Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hardforkpod/ Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork Subscribe to Hard Fork: https://www.youtube.com/hardfork Go deeper on our episodes: nytimes.com/hardfork Discover the journalism Times subscribers get daily, free for your first month in The New York Times app. Download app: https://nytimes.onelink.me/Xpht/a6wzplra