American startup Anthropic, the creator of the Claude artificial intelligence system, showed potential investors record revenue. It generated nearly $17 billion in the third quarter of this year, 45 percent more than in the previous three months. Instead of enthusiasm, however, some investors were left disappointed. Until now, there had been talk that the company’s market value could reach $2 trillion after going public. Some are now leaning more toward a figure of around $1.5 trillion.
The company has started making money
Anthropic disclosed the figures at a private meeting at its headquarters in San Francisco. The company invited investors there for a full day of presentations. Management sought to convince them that the business is growing rapidly, operating ever more efficiently and, thanks to its emphasis on AI safety, is ready to go public in November. Guests were welcomed by CEO Dario Amodei and CFO Krishna Rao.
For the first time, management revealed its financial performance by quarter. In the first three months of the year, the startup generated just under $5 billion in revenue, followed by nearly $12 billion in the second quarter and almost $17 billion in the third. These are actual revenues for each period. Technology companies often report annualized estimates based on sales from the most recent weeks instead. Anthropic has not officially confirmed these figures; the information was leaked by meeting attendees.
In addition to its revenue, Anthropic boasted that it is generating a real profit for the first time in its history. It told investors that it was profitable in the third quarter, marking the second consecutive quarter in the black. However, this was so-called adjusted profit, which excludes certain one-off or accounting expenses.
The company genuinely had money left over after paying its expenses. For every hundred dollars in revenue, it retained $85 after deducting direct costs. After including ordinary operating expenses, the net remainder was more than $11. The largest item in its budget is the computers and data centers on which its artificial intelligence runs. For every dollar invested, the company generated a return of $1.70.
Just last year, however, the situation looked completely different. For the whole of 2025, Anthropic generated just under $5 billion in revenue and posted an operating loss of more than $8 billion.
Why investors became uneasy
Investors are not concerned about the level of revenue, but about the pace of its growth. In the second quarter, revenue increased by 147 percent compared with the first, meaning it more than doubled. At the time, growth was driven mainly by enormous interest among programmers in Claude Code, a tool that helps them write code. By comparison, growth of 45 percent looks modest and disappointed some prospective investors.
Market developments are also weighing on sentiment. Financiers are concerned about the cost of building data centers for artificial intelligence and the fact that companies are increasingly borrowing money to finance them. Inflation also came in higher than expected. As a result, technology stocks fell sharply last week, while a fund tracking chipmakers declined for eight consecutive trading days.
Caution is being reinforced by difficulties at other companies that had planned to go public. Data center operator SB Energy postponed its listing last month, nuclear company Holtec Nuclear abandoned its plans altogether, and smart ring manufacturer Oura will wait for calmer conditions. Earlier this month, markets were also unsettled by confusion surrounding rival OpenAI. Initial reports said it could generate $70 billion in revenue next year, but it later emerged that the figure was more likely to be $50 billion.
Some investors remain confident
Not everyone is succumbing to pessimism, however. Investor Gavin Baker of Atreides Management offered a different perspective on X. According to him, it is a good thing that Anthropic will probably stop publishing annual revenue estimates. He believes the market should stop fixating on the results of the two best-known players and instead monitor the growth of the major cloud companies through which artificial intelligence is delivered to users.
Baker bases his optimism on the fact that Anthropic has more money coming in than it spends and that its growth accelerated again in October. According to him, the company is performing much better than expected. Three-quarters of its computing costs are not spent on day-to-day operations for customers, but on developing new models.
Going public before December
The date is rapidly approaching. During the week beginning November 9, Anthropic plans to start presenting its shares to major investors so that trading can begin before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. In May, private investors valued the company at just under $1 trillion. Two years ago, it was worth less than $20 billion.
Anthropic’s stock market debut is seen as a test of how much money people are still willing to invest in artificial intelligence. The outcome could also affect sentiment ahead of a possible OpenAI listing next year. Companies that have backed Anthropic to date, particularly Amazon, Alphabet and Nvidia, have a major opportunity to convert their stakes into cash.
Sources: theinformation.com, businessinsider.com, reuters.com and finance.yahoo.com
