Anthropic plans unusual IPO lockup that lets some insiders sell early

Anthropic wants to rewrite one of the oldest rules in the IPO playbook. The AI company behind the Claude models plans to let some early investors and employees sell shares before the standard 180-day lockup period ends. For a listing that could rank among the largest in history, that is a notable break from convention. How the structure works The plan has two moving parts, and they pull in opposite directions. First, Anthropic plans to allow limited secondary sales by existing shareholders during the offering itself. A secondary sale means current holders sell their own stock to incoming investors, rather than the company issuing new shares to raise fresh capital. Second, the remaining pre-IPO shares could face lockups longer than the usual 180 days. Under certain circumstances, those restrictions could stretch into mid-2027. The company is also considering Rule 10b5-1 trading plans for employees. These are preset schedules that spell out future stock sales ahead of time, so selling runs on autopilot instead of reacting to the latest earnings call or market wobble. The overall design is meant to prevent excessive selling pressure once the stock starts trading. The road to the filin...