Anthropic: financial results before IPO

On the mechanics of the offering, share classes, and the phased lockup release, we covered in a previous article. The financial data for Q3 2026 were not included in the initial version of the prospectus. Anthropic added them in an amendment (S-1/A) published on November 2.

The updated data make it possible to assess how the company’s revenue is growing, who its customers are, how much computing capacity costs, and what financial obligations Anthropic has taken on for the coming years.

Quarterly revenue increased 12-fold

In the third quarter of 2026, Anthropic’s revenue amounted to $17.0 billion. That is 12.3 times more than a year earlier and 47% more than in the second quarter.

Over these three months, the company generated more revenue than in all of 2025 ($4.6 billion). For the first nine months of 2026, revenue reached $33.2 billion, compared with $2.5 billion for the same period in 2025.

Anthropic has two main revenue sources. The first is usage-based billing: companies integrate Anthropic’s models into their services and pay for the volume of requests. Over nine months, this source accounted for 79% of revenue.

The remaining 21% came from subscriptions, and they are growing faster: subscription revenue increased 16.5-fold compared with the first nine months of 2025. The United States accounts for 71% of revenue. However, it should be noted that the 2026 reporting has not yet been audited.

Customers are spending more

According to the prospectus, over the year the number of customers generating more than $100,000 in revenue over the last 12 months rose from about 950 to more than 11,900. Existing customers are also increasing their spending on Anthropic’s products. As of September 30, net revenue retention (NRR) stood at about 900%. In other words, companies that used Anthropic’s products a year ago are now, on average, spending about nine times more on them.

At the same time, Anthropic is less dependent on its largest customers. Customers outside the top five accounted for 79% of revenue in the third quarter, up from 64% in the first quarter. Another important sales channel is the cloud platforms of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Through them, the company generated 44% of revenue over nine months. All three platforms distribute Anthropic’s products and at the same time compete with it in the AI market.

What the customer examples show

The prospectus includes 20 examples of how Anthropic’s products are used: from Walmart, Verizon, and Eli Lilly to the Boston café Shy Bird. These examples were selected by the company itself, so they show the potential scale of the effect and do not provide a complete picture of implementation results.

Most often, customers note a reduction in task completion time. For example, at SAP, tasks took 12% less time, and at Bristol Myers Squibb — 99.9% less.

At Bristol Myers Squibb, finding an answer to a research question using real-world clinical data now takes about five minutes instead of roughly two months.

At Salesforce, one developer’s productivity increased by 151% over the year, and an API migration that was initially scheduled to take 231 working days was completed in 13 days.

Claude is also used by tens of thousands of employees at large companies: more than 50,000 people at Eli Lilly, over 33,000 engineers at Verizon, and more than 30,000 employees at Bristol Myers Squibb.

Why the quarter closed with an operating loss

In Q3, computing costs grew faster than revenue: over the quarter, they increased by 77% to $9.9 billion and accounted for 58% of revenue, compared with 48% in the second quarter. As a result, operating profit of $974 million turned into an operating loss of $567 million.

Two factors affected the result. The first was the use of short-term computing capacity worth $5.0 billion. According to the prospectus, this capacity is significantly more expensive for the company than capacity provided under long-term contracts.

The second was a non-cash expense of $2.0 billion for a program under which Anthropic co-funds employees’ charitable donations.

Excluding stock-based compensation and expenses related to the charitable program, the company remains profitable. Adjusted operating profit increased by 10% to $2.5 billion, and adjusted net profit increased by 16% to $3.2 billion.

At the same time, net loss for the quarter amounted to $23.3 billion. Of this amount, $21.9 billion was due to a non-cash revaluation of convertible loans and related financial instruments.

What is affecting the growth rate

Quarter-over-quarter revenue growth has slowed: in Q2, revenue increased by 144%, while in Q3 it increased by 47%. According to Reuters, citing a source, at the end of July Anthropic’s annualized revenue run-rate exceeded $65 billion. The company calculates this figure based on consumption over the last 28 days and the monthly value of subscriptions, annualized.

The prospectus highlights three factors affecting the company’s future growth.

Competition

On September 22, OpenAI released GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, which were roughly twice as cheap as the previous generation. On the same day, Anthropic introduced Opus 5.5 and lowered prices for new versions of its models. According to the company, the price cuts and discounts reduced quarterly revenue by about $600 million.

Demand for computing capacity

In the prospectus, Anthropic states that demand for computing capacity exceeds the amount available to the company. To meet customer needs, in Q3 it had to secure additional capacity under short-term contracts.

Frequent releases of new models

In September, Anthropic introduced three models: Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, and Sonnet 5.5. The company believes that regularly releasing new models is a necessary condition for operating at the industry frontier. At the same time, new models generate the bulk of revenue: more than 80% of Q3 revenue came from models released over the previous six months.

Computing capacity is also needed for research and the development of new models. That is why Anthropic has to secure additional resources when the needs of customers and research teams exceed the capacity provided under existing contracts.

Commitments decades ahead

Anthropic has signed long-term computing capacity contracts with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and SpaceX, a Raison portfolio company. The total amount of capacity and infrastructure commitments is about $895 billion. According to Bloomberg’s calculations, this is almost 13 times the company’s annual revenue at the current run-rate.

About $447.5 billion remains to be paid by the end of 2030, while the rest falls mainly in 2031–2045. About $213.8 billion of the total is tied to termination rights or conditions that must be met before deliveries begin. The remaining commitments are largely non-cancellable.

Data centers are built by the capacity providers, who also raise debt financing for them. As a result, Anthropic’s own capital expenditures for the first nine months of 2026 amounted to only $0.9 billion. The company is gradually replacing short-term contracts with long-term ones, which are cheaper.

What to expect next

The current version of the prospectus is still not final. Ahead of investor meetings scheduled for the week of November 9, Anthropic will publish a second amendment. It will include the price range for the offering and the number of shares offered to investors. The company will likely also disclose annualized revenue as of October 31.

The final IPO terms will be announced on the eve of trading. After collecting investor orders, the company and the underwriters will determine the offering price. This will determine both the amount of funds Anthropic receives and its market capitalization after the IPO.

The official offering date has not yet been announced. According to The Wall Street Journal, trading could begin in the week of November 16.

Bottom line

The updated prospectus shows how quickly Anthropic’s business is growing: over the year, the company increased quarterly revenue 12-fold, more than 12-fold increased the number of customers generating over $100,000 a year, and reduced its dependence on the five largest customers.

Computing costs are still growing faster than revenue, and the company ended the third quarter with an operating loss. Capacity commitments are set years ahead, and data center construction is financed by suppliers.

In the next article, we will examine what the market expects from the offering.

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