Whale Rock CEO expects Anthropic to reach 500M users ahead of IPO

Alex Sacerdote pitched Anthropic at the Sohn Montreal conference, projecting massive user growth for the Claude AI maker valued at $380 billion.

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Add us on Google by Editorial Team Jun. 5, 2026

Alex Sacerdote, founder and CEO of Whale Rock Capital Management, thinks Anthropic is on track to hit half a billion users before it goes public. That’s not a typo. Five hundred million, with a B-shaped shadow looming behind it.

Sacerdote made the projection at the Sohn Montreal investment conference on June 4, one day after Anthropic filed a confidential IPO registration with the SEC. The timing was not subtle.

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From 2 million to 14 million, and counting

According to Sacerdote, Claude’s user count surged from 2 million to 14 million in a relatively short window. That’s a 7x jump, and the kind of growth curve that makes venture investors start breathing a little faster.

Anthropic has tapped Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as lead underwriters for the offering.

The $380 billion valuation

Whale Rock isn’t just cheerleading from the sidelines. The firm participated in Anthropic’s Series G funding round, which closed on February 12, 2026. That round raised $30 billion and valued the company at $380 billion post-money.

Whale Rock Capital manages approximately $8 billion in assets and runs a long/short strategy focused on technology, media, and telecom.

Why this matters beyond Silicon Valley

The confidential SEC filing on June 3 means the IPO process is formally underway, though the exact timeline and pricing remain undetermined. Confidential filings allow companies to receive SEC feedback on their registration statements before making financials public, a common playbook for high-profile tech debuts.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.