By Utkarsh Shetti and Arasu Kannagi Basil
Nov 2 (Reuters) – Anthropic sharply narrowed its net loss from the previous quarter as revenue surged, an amended regulatory filing showed on Monday, giving investors a fresh look at the AI firm’s finances ahead of its highly anticipated IPO.
The company is moving towards what could be the biggest IPO on record, putting its financial performance and huge spending commitments under scrutiny as investors question whether AI’s rapid growth can justify its massive capital needs.
Some current and prospective investors are valuing Anthropic at about $1.5 trillion, down from roughly $2 trillion after the startup disclosed financial details at a recent investor event, Reuters has reported.
Anthropic’s net loss fell to $23.29 billion in the three months ended September 30 from $66.3 billion in the second quarter, while revenue climbed to $16.96 billion from $11.56 billion.
It reported an operating loss of $567 million in the third quarter, compared with operating income of $974 million in the second quarter.
Anthropic’s operating loss reflects the cost of running its business, including computing infrastructure and research, while its net loss also includes non-operating items related to bonds convertible into its shares.
“The growth at this scale stands out … We will be looking at when that capacity becomes available, when payments begin and how revenue grows against those obligations,” said Evan Schlossman and Willy Lee, principals at VC firm Neostellar, referring to Anthropic’s future purchase and lease commitments.
SET FOR BLOCKBUSTER IPO
The company is expected to begin marketing shares to prospective investors during the week of November 9, Reuters reported last month. Its initial filing confirmed a series of Reuters exclusives that provided an early look at the company’s finances and growth trajectory.
Anthropic’s latest filing also outlined risks to its contracted computing capacity if partners are unable to secure funding to buy chips, adding to concerns over debt underpinning the AI infrastructure boom.
The sector has been particularly vulnerable to shifts in investor sentiment as debt-fueled expansion raises questions about the ability of AI companies to fund their capital needs and generate sufficient returns.
The amended filing also showed Anthropic was considering changes to its Responsible Scaling Policy, the company’s framework for tracking AI risks, that would require human review of decisions in some research and development processes.
Anthropic is among AI developers that have warned about the potential risks posed by rapid advances in the technology, with CEO Dario Amodei calling for a slowdown in its development.
FRESH LOOK AT NUMBERS
Anthropic had about $895.4 billion in spending commitments related to computing agreements with partners including Amazon and Alphabet’s Google, among the largest AI infrastructure commitments on record.
Roughly $447.5 billion of those commitments are expected to be incurred before December 31, 2030, while about $69.8 billion is due in the 12 months following September 30.
An additional $5 billion in compute under short-term commitments during the quarter weighed on improvements in compute efficiency, reducing revenue per dollar of compute from the previous quarter, Anthropic said.
Anthropic said it had more than 11,900 customers generating at least $100,000 in revenue on a trailing 12-month basis as of September 30, up from more than 1,500 at the end of 2025.
(Reporting by Utkarsh Shetti and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
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