MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. AI developers Anthropic and OpenAI could potentially block all users of ChatGPT and Claude from Russia and other countries after going public, Russian company MWS AI told TASS.

This could happen because the companies will need to "reduce operational costs," Tech Lead at MWS AI's Applied Solutions Center Ivan Kopylov said. "Companies are already banning access to ChatGPT and Claude from Russia, China, and several other nations, but they are not always strictly enforcing these restrictions yet," he noted.

Mass bans of corporate Claude users are already visible in certain countries where users access the AI via alternative platforms, the expert said. Individual users are less affected so far, he noted. "Before going public, platforms find it beneficial to showcase maximum reach in terms of paid subscriptions," Kopylov said.

Both Anthropic and OpenAI have been actively preparing for their IPOs for a long time. Anthropic, the developer of Claude, spends billions of dollars on infrastructure and AI training, and submitted a draft registration application for an IPO to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June. The financial community expects the company to rake up to $100 bln at a $2 trillion valuation.

OpenAI also filed a preliminary application with the SEC in early summer, but its IPO could be pushed back to 2027. The company is competing with Anthropic at the same time and aims to secure investor commitments before its rival goes public - Anthropic could launch its IPO as early as November 2026.

"After an IPO, investors look not only at user growth but also at expenses, cash flow, and profit margins. If a user generates less revenue than the company spends on serving them, expanding that user base only increases losses. This is particularly evident in AI: every single query requires computational power, so even a free user generates ongoing operational costs," Kopylov added.