The company behind Claude filed its IPO papers on 26 October.
| Metric | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Net loss, H1 2026 | $80.7bn | Mostly on paper |
| Valuation | $965bn | Up to $2tn expected at listing |
Sources: Anthropic S-1 via BetaNews and Yahoo Finance (26 Oct 2026).
Fast growth, big costs
Anthropic makes the AI model Claude. Its revenue jumped from $0.04bn in 2023 to $16.3bn in the first half of 2026. But computing power is its biggest cost. For three years, compute costs were higher than revenue.
Revenue and operating result, $ bn
| Period | Revenue ($ bn) | Operating result ($ bn) |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 0.04 | −0.55 |
| 2024 | 0.39 | −2.98 |
| 2025 | 4.59 | −8.06 |
| H1 2026 | 16.3 | −0.69 |
Q3 2026 is not in the filing yet (reportedly $16.8bn).
The net loss of $80.7bn in H1 2026 is mostly on paper. About $72.4bn comes from revaluing convertible notes (loans that turn into shares) and similar instruments. This is an accounting effect. No money was actually spent.
Sources: Anthropic S-1 via Reuters (revenue, operating result, compute costs, chart idea) and BetaNews (net loss, 26 Oct 2026), FT (Q3 revenue, 15 Oct 2026).
Is $2 trillion too much?
Investors may value Anthropic at up to $2 trillion.
Reasons to pay up
- Revenue grew about 14 times in a year.
- An operating profit of $974m in Q2 2026.
- $112bn of cash plus $19bn of short-term investments.
- 60.1% of business AI token spending in the week to 11 Oct, according to Ramp data.
Reasons to be careful
- More than $600bn of compute deals over ten years, many cannot be cancelled.
- Many customers can suddenly cut usage or end contracts.
- The founders hold 50.1% of the votes, so new shareholders have little say.
- An FTC probe and a dispute with the US government.
$965bn → $2tn
Valuation in May compared with what Wall Street expects at listing. That is about twice as much in five months.
Sources: Anthropic S-1 via Reuters, BetaNews and Yahoo Finance (26 Oct 2026), Ramp data via Reuters.
What does this mean?
For the AI trade
AI stocks had been in a slump after the chip sell-off. The IPO filing alone boosted the AI trade on 26 October.
For index investors
SpaceX joined the Nasdaq-100 faster than any company before. Anthropic could be next, so index funds may have to buy.
For Big Tech
Amazon and Google are investors, suppliers and sales channels at once. Together they have invested about $41bn in Anthropic, and they sell Claude to their own cloud customers. In turn, Anthropic will spend at least $224.5bn on their cloud computing, so money flows in a circle.
Sources: Yahoo Finance (AI trade, SpaceX, index funds), Anthropic S-1 via Investing.com (Amazon and Google, as of 27.10.2026).