Anthropic and OpenAI Face a Six-Month Test — Perplexity CEO Says 'Then It's a Problem for Them'

Perplexity AI chief executive, Aravind Srinivas, has warned that Anthropic and OpenAI's combined private-market valuations of roughly £1.35 trillion ($1.8 trillion) could come under pressure if either company fails to show meaningful progress in artificial intelligence within the next six months.

'If for six months you don't see a model capability advance from one of these two companies, then it's a problem for them,' Srinivas told CNBC in an interview that aired on Tuesday.

Anthropic filed a confidential draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 1 June, just days after closing a £48.8 billion ($65 billion) Series H round that pushed its valuation to roughly £724 billion ($965 billion), according to TechCrunch. OpenAI submitted its own confidential S-1 on 8 June, as the BBC confirmed, a week later.

£1.35T in Valuations Heading to Public Markets

Srinivas, whose AI search start-up is valued at roughly £15 billion ($20 billion), said both frontier labs currently deserve their valuations because they sit 'on the frontier' of AI development. He added that there is no sign of a slowdown at present.

The six-month window he described aligns with the period in which both companies are expected to complete the IPO process. OpenAI is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a potential listing as early as the autumn, according to Bloomberg. Anthropic has not named underwriters or disclosed a target date but said its proposed listing would depend on market conditions.

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, carries a valuation of approximately £639 billion ($852 billion) after raising £91.5 billion ($122 billion) in March. The company said it has not settled on timing. 'There are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,' it said in the filing announcement.

Both valuations were set in private funding rounds with limited financial disclosure. A public listing would expose full financial statements — revenue, margins, cash burn — for the first time.

OpenAI disclosed earlier this year that it generates roughly £1.5 billion ($2 billion) in monthly revenue, up from approximately £750 million ($1 billion) per quarter at the end of 2024. Anthropic has not released comparable figures.

SpaceX Debut as a Leading Indicator

Both AI companies will list into a market already shaped by one large flotation. SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket and satellite venture, is set to begin trading this week with a target valuation of roughly £1.5 trillion ($2 trillion). The company aims to raise more than £56.3 billion ($75 billion) — which would surpass Saudi Aramco's £22.1 billion ($29.4 billion) raise in 2019 as the largest IPO on record.

Srinivas said the SpaceX listing will serve as an early signal for the AI offerings. 'The SpaceX IPO this week will definitely be a leading indicator of how Anthropic or OpenAI will go out,' he told CNBC.

Perplexity Holds to Its Own 2028 Timeline

Srinivas said Perplexity has been planning a 2028 listing independent of its larger rivals. 'Agnostic of these two companies, we were planning for something in 2028, so that still remains the case,' he said.

He acknowledged, however, that poor outcomes for the bigger listings would have consequences. 'I certainly think there will be ripple effects if they don't go well, like there is no sugar coating on that.'

Perplexity chief business officer Dmitry Shevelenko told Reuters separately that the company has been able to build a 'healthy, high-growth business' by consistently holding 2028 as its earliest target date.

Srinivas also addressed enterprise AI spending, another factor weighing on the sector's outlook.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has acknowledged that the cost companies are paying for AI tools has become a 'huge issue', according to CNBC. That cost pressure is expected to feature in both companies' prospectuses when they become public.