Anthropic weighs an early model release to counter OpenAI's Astra

Reuters reported on 18 September 2026 that Anthropic is considering releasing a new AI model ahead of its usual schedule, citing three unnamed sources, as a response to the competitive momentum OpenAI has built since launching GPT-6 Astra earlier in September. The report frames the move as sitting in tension with Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei's own public call, six days earlier, for the AI industry to slow the pace of capability releases.

Why the timing is awkward

Amodei's 12 September essay argued AI companies should deliberately pace how fast they improve model capabilities, citing safety and governance concerns. Reuters' sources say Anthropic is weighing an accelerated release at the same time investors are reportedly reassessing its competitive position: Astra has gained traction with enterprise customers, and Meta — one of Anthropic's larger customers — is said to be reducing its reliance on Anthropic's models as it builds more capability internally. Anthropic's own annualized revenue run rate reportedly grew from about $9 billion at the end of 2025 to roughly $65 billion by the end of July 2026, according to Reuters' sourcing, underlining how much is riding on maintaining enterprise share.

A spend sample is not a market-share number

Some coverage of enterprise AI spend has cited data from the expense-management platform Ramp, showing Astra and Claude at roughly 13% and 8% respectively of enterprise AI spend tracked on that one platform. That is a sample of spend on a single expense platform, not a measurement of overall market or unit share, and should not be read as one.

Reuters also reports Anthropic's IPO timeline may slip past the November US midterm elections, after already being pushed back from an earlier mid-October marketing start; OpenAI's Sam Altman separately said this week that an OpenAI IPO in 2026 would be "ill-advised." None of this is a confirmed release date — it is sourced reporting on internal deliberation, and buyers should treat it as exactly that until Anthropic confirms a model or a listing timeline itself.

Sources: Reuters — Anthropic considers releasing new AI model ahead of IPO, sources say, TheStreet — Anthropic impacts OpenAI ahead of IPO.