Anthropic's IPO push includes a big bet on life sciences

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of the pharma giant Novartis, joined Anthropic's board of directors in April. Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Anthropic conquered coding. Now it's setting its sights on the human body.

Anthropic's S-1 filing , which outlines its ambitions and financials ahead of a massive initial public offering next month, reads as a life-sciences manifesto. The maker of Claude sees itself as a crucial cog in the next generation of biological and medicinal research — and is selling that lucrative vision to its would-be investors.

Anthropic is hoping for a wave of new discoveries that will support its do-gooder mission and convince the public of AI's power and worth. Its life-science focus could also support financial growth beyond its AI software engineering tools .…