The Wall Street Journal reports Anthropic's draft IPO filing shows $16.3 billion of first half revenue, an $80.7 billion net loss and huge compute commitments
Exclusive: Anthropic's draft IPO filing reveals red-hot growth, massive computing costs and an $80 billion net loss. Here are the highlights.
Context
It is the first detailed look at the finances of a leading AI lab heading to the public markets, and it shows how much its growth depends on spending on compute.
This is a report by The Wall Street Journal on a draft prospectus it viewed; Anthropic has not published the filing. Anthropic had been reported to be preparing an IPO, with earlier coverage of an investor day and valuation talk in this deck.
- The Wall Street Journal: Anthropic draft IPO filing shows red hot growth, many risks and massive computing costs
- Reuters via Investing.com: Anthropic recorded net loss of over $80 billion in first half
- Polymarket: Anthropic recorded an $80 billion net loss
- zerohedge: Anthropic had $16.3B in revenue in first half
- zerohedge: Anthropic to spend more than $600B on compute
- Advance Intelligence: Reuters reports OpenAI is racing to raise about $30 billion before Anthropic's IPO
Deep dive
On October 20, The Wall Street Journal posted an exclusive saying Anthropic's draft IPO filing reveals red hot growth, massive computing costs and an $80 billion net loss.
According to the Journal, as summarized by Reuters and Techmeme, Anthropic reported $16.3 billion of revenue in the first half of 2026, up from $1.1 billion a year earlier, with about 20% coming from two customers. It recorded a net loss of $80.7 billion, against $13 billion a year earlier. Reuters, citing the Journal, said $72 billion of that came from accounting charges tied to changes in the value of convertible notes and other instruments Anthropic issued to raise money, so the loss excluding those items was much smaller, roughly $8.7 billion by one widely shared reading.
Zerohedge posted that Anthropic plans to spend more than $600 billion on compute, citing the Journal, and Polymarket posted the $80 billion loss without the accounting context. Both are secondhand. Coverage of the article also described a long list of risk factors.
The figures come from a draft, which can change before a final filing, and Anthropic did not immediately respond to Reuters. The Journal's full article is paywalled, so details here come from Reuters and other summaries of it.
The report lands as OpenAI is reported to be raising money at a valuation above $1.4 trillion ahead of Anthropic's listing, covered in the October 19 deck.
What to expect next
Watch for Anthropic to file its prospectus publicly, which would confirm or update the revenue, loss and compute figures. The split between accounting charges and operating losses will shape how investors value the company. Also watch how much of its revenue depends on its two largest customers, and how its compute commitments compare with OpenAI's as both prepare for public markets.