Anthropic revenue jumps 46% to $16.8bn as AI firm eyes record $2 trillion IPO valuation

AI developer Anthropic grew its sales by about 46% to $16.8 billion (€15bn) last quarter and turned an adjusted profit, it told investors on Wednesday, weeks before a November stock market debut that could value it at up to $2 trillion (€1.79bn). Anthropic, the San Francisco-based developer of the Claude AI models, generated $16.8 billion (€15bn) in revenue between July and September, up about 46% from $11.5 billion (€10.3bn) in the previous three months, and posted an adjusted profit. It presented the figures to investors at its headquarters on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter, weeks before a planned initial public offering in November that could value the company at up to $2 trillion (€1.79bn). The company told investors it was profitable for a second straight quarter on an adjusted basis, a measure that strips out certain costs. On the same basis, it had positive free cash flow, meaning it brought in more cash than it spent, and an operating margin of 11%, the share of revenue left after running costs. Each dollar it spent on computing power brought in $1.70 of revenue in the quarter, but growth is slowing. Revenue had more than doubled from the first to the second quarter, and the latest figures fell short of some investors’ hopes cited by the Financial Times. Annualised revenue, which projects recent sales over a full year, is now reportedly expected to end 2026 below $100 billion (€89.5bn), short of the more than $100 billion (€89.5bn) several backers had previously anticipated. For instance, research firm SemiAnalysis puts the current figure at about $74 billion (€66.2bn), compared with some $65 billion (€58.1bn) in late July. Record IPO in sight Anthropic filed confidentially for an IPO with US regulators in June and has yet to publish its full prospectus. It is aiming to list in November, once the US midterm elections are over, at a valuation of as much as $2 trillion (€1.79bn), with US investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley reportedly leading the deal. That would top the roughly $1.8 trillion (€1.6tn) at which SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company, priced its record-breaking IPO in June, and be about double the $965 billion (€863bn) valuation at which Anthropic raised $65 billion (€58.1bn) from private investors in May. On standard accounting measures, Anthropic lost $42 billion (€37.5bn) in 2025 on revenue of $4.6 billion (€4.1bn), according to a draft prospectus reported last month, largely because of $34 billion (€30.4bn) in accounting charges linked to past fundraising. Race with OpenAI Rival OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, was approaching $50 billion (€44.7bn) in annualised revenue at the end of September, although the two count revenue differently, so the figures are not like for like. OpenAI is not expected to list on public markets before 2027, but competition in the sector remains fierce. Anthropic had appeared to lose ground to OpenAI in recent months due to the release of the Astra model by Sam Altman's firm, while much cheaper Chinese models posed a risk to its revenue. Anthropic could start marketing its shares to investors as soon as the week of 9 November, according to Bloomberg, further citing people familiar with the matter.